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POLITICAL OPINION 

IN MASSACHUSETTS DURING CIVIL 

WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 



BY 

EDITH ELLEN WARE, A. M. 

Instructor in Histwy, Smith College 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
I916 



POLITICAL OPINION 

IN MASSACHUSETTS DURING CIVIL 

WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 




EDITH ELLEN WARE, A. M. 

Instrtxtor in History, Smith College 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
I916 



^<^ 




Gift 
Ths University 



PREFACE 

In the following pages no attempt has been made to re- 
write the story of the Civil War, nor has there been any 
effort to narrate the steps of Reconstruction ; that has been 
ably done from various points of view. This monograph 
presupposes that such works are very familiar and confines 
itself, as its title indicates, to the political opinion within a 
single state during those critical years. Massachusetts is 
inevitably prominent in the history of that time. She was 
one of the larger states and had an active aggressive gov- 
ernor; many of her citizens were in positions of national 
importance. In fact Robert C. Winthrop complained : 

I cannot but regret that our state is put forward so promi- 
nently. Sumner at the head of Foreign Affairs, Wilson at 
the head of Military Affairs, Butler commanding one wing, 
Banks commanding another wing, Adams Minister to London, 
Burlingame to Pekin, Motley to Vienna, Regiment after Regi- 
ment of Massa&c volunteers hurrying to the conflict — all this 
tends to keep up the idea that this is a Mass(&c) War and 
provokes increased hostility and exasperation at the South.^ 

Aside from this political prestige it should be noted that 
abolitionist propaganda centered in Boston, and that its 
great leaders and influential sympathizers were citizens of 
Massachusetts whose activity colored the contemporary 
opinion of her held by outsiders and has continued to color 
the memory of her attitude even to the present (1916). 
Furthermore the eastern part of the state was the home of 

1 Winthrop MSS, to Judge Clifford, Aug. 24, 1861. 
201] 5 



6 PREFACE [202 

prominent literary men of the period, and, although the 
extent of the influence of their presence and opinion on the 
political situation may be questioned, their general anti- 
slavery attitude is well known and together with the aboli- 
tionist agitation is best remembered as the opinion of 
Massachusetts. 

By reputation the Bay State has always been Republi- 
can. But a majority never expresses the whole political 
opinion. Besides it is a minority which at times makes 
itself most felt, as for example, in national affairs, in the Civil 
War itself. The position and character of a minority is 
often forgotten; for history records merely the success of 
the triumphant, and tradition passes on the thoughts of the 
conspicuous. I purpose here to inquire into the strength of 
the minority, and the reasons for their opposition and their 
strength ; to discover who were the spectacular and famous 
individuals or representatives of both sides; and to ascertain 
what the majority really thought. In other words, I shall 
try to present a comprehensive study of the political opinion 
in Massachusetts during the Civil War and Reconstruction. 

The material for the present work has been gathered 
largely from newspaper files, chiefly those of the Boston 
and Springfield Public Libraries and the Antiquarian So- 
ciety at Worcester. Collections of pamphlets and broadsides 
which are in the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical So- 
tiety and the State Library ^ were consulted and in addition 
such private papers as were available. I wish to express my 
indebtedness to attendants of these libraries, as well as to 
the librarians of Columbia and Harvard Universities and 
Smith College, of Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and of 
the Clarke and the Forbes Libraries in Northampton. I 

1 Fuller accounts of this material will be found in appendices ii 
and iii. 



203] PREFACE y 

have also received material through personal channels, 
chiefly in the form of suggestions and reminiscences. I am 
indebted especially to Mrs. Sarah Hughes of Milton, daugh- 
ter of John Murray Forbes ; to Professor Henry Greenleaf 
Pearson of the Institute of Technology; to Dr. Worthing- 
ton C. Ford and to the late Dr. Samuel A. Green of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society ; to Mr. Frank B. Sanborn 
and Colonel N. P. Hallo well, and also to the late Miss Ann 
Page and neighbors of Danvers, and to residents of Wor- 
cester, of the neighborhood of Bridgewater, Plymouth 
County, and to yet others of the Hadleys. 

Finally I owe grateful acknowledgment in particular to 
Professor John Spencer Bassett of Smith College, who sug- 
gested the line of investigation, and to Professor William A. 
Dunning, who has encouraged the work to its completion. 

Edith Ellen Ware. 

Northampton, 1916. '' 



CONTENTS 

rAGE 

Introduction , 15 

CHAPTER I 
The Election of i860 

The Republican Party. 

Platform : criticisms, defense 22 

Influence of the re-election of Sumner and the John Brown aflFair 25 

Nature of Republican anti-slavery sentiment 26 

Conventions : delegates to the national convention ; candidate ; 
state convention 26 

The Democratic Party 

Charleston convention ; delegates and reports 29 

Baltimore convention 30 

Douglas's visit to Massachusetts 31 

Nominating conventions 31 

Breckinridge faction in the minority 32 

The Third Party 

Origin, composition, strength 33 

The Election 

Local episodes 36 

The vote 37 

Result upon public opinion 38 

CHAPTER II 

The Period of the Secessions, November 7, i860, to 
April 15, 1861 
General Attitude 

Surprise, early indifference, growing concern, condemnation . . 40 
Disunionists 

Southern sympathizers 43 

Abolitionists 44 

Anti-war factions 45 

Comments of Merriam and Holmes on gradations in opinions. . 46 

Hunkers and submissionists 47 

205] 9 



lO CONTENTS [206 

PACB 

Compromise policies 

Charles Francis Adams in Congress 49 

Within the state : Crittenden compromise petitions ; Peace Con- 
ference delegates ; revision of Personal Liberty Law 51 

Conciliatory spirit supplemented by pecuniary interest and en- 
couraged by confidence in the temporary character of the diffi- 
culties 59 

Military Preparations 

Andrew's measures 6l 

Legislative action 62 

General popular opposition 63 

Persistent Professed Confidence in Adjustment • . 64 

CHAPTER III 
The Defense of the Union 

United Sentiment 
The effect of firing upon Sumter ; of the Sixth regiment episode ; 

of letters of marque 67 

Comment: of Abolitionists; of Constitutional Unionists, ^. ^., 

Everett ; of Republicans, ^. f,, Andrew and Forbes 69 

The critical minority 71 

Factions for Compromise 
Indifferent, neutral, anti-abolitionist, pro-slavery 73 

Union a Sacred Trust 

"The Union must be preserved " 75 

" Let slavery take care of itself " 76 

Union meeting ; attempted union of parties yy 

The Election of 1861 

Democratic convention : platform 78 

Republican convention : rejection of emancipation as an issue . 79 

The union ticket and reasons for its failure 8l 

The one issue. The vote 82 

CHAPTER IV 
Emancipation 

Purpose of the Chapter 83 

Abolitionists an Isolated Group in the Election of i860 83 

Hostility toward Abolitionists in the winter of 1861 ; riots of De- 
cember 3, and December 16, i860, and January 24, 1861 .... 85 
Emancipation m 1861 

Republican majority determined to "let slavery take care of 
itself" 90 



207] CONTENTS II 

rAGB 

Contraband ; Fremont 91 

Emancipation League 93 

Growing sentiment for and 94 

Continued protest against emancipation as an issue 95 

Problems of 1862 
Confiscation ; emancipation with compensation ; emancipation in 

the District of Columbia 96 

Emancipation and foreign intervention 97 

Developing Sentiment for Emancipation 98 

The Proclamation 

Acquiescence in lOl 

Disapproval of : by People's party, the Post, the Irish, the Cour- 
ier, the AboHtionists 102 

Summary 

Transformation of opinion, illustrated by representative men . . 106 

Restatement of the opinion of Massachusetts on emancipation . 107 

CHAPTER V 
The Rise and Fall of Copperheadism 

Definition of Copperheadism iio 

Criticism of the Administration 1861 and 1862 

Divergent opinions in 1861 ill 

Effect of the Emancipation Proclamation on the critics 114 

People's party 114 

Campaign of 1862 

Republican convention ; resolutions 116 

People's convention : resolutions ; effect of the Emancipation 

Proclamation upon the new party 117 

Democratic convention : resolutions 118 

The vote 119 

Copperheadism of 1863 
McClellan's visit to Boston ; the counter movement of the New 

England Loyal Publication Society, and by the Union Club . 120 
Opposition to negro enlistment ; disappears through familiarity 

and necessity 126 

Draft riots 129 

Election of 1863 : vote ; platforms, Republican and Democratic . 132 

Politics of 1864 

Demands for peace ; Democratic resolutions ; comment 135 

Republican convention : resolutions ; abolitionist following . . . 138 

The people's confidence in Lincoln 140 



12 CONTENTS [208 

rAGK 

Reception of McClellan's letter ; changed attitude toward com- 
promise 141 

The vote 142 

Disappearance of Copperheadism 

Acquiescence in the election of 1864 142 

Tribute to Lincoln 144 

CHAPTER VI 

PART I 

Reconstruction— Theories and Policies 

Professor Dunning's Analysis of Reconstruction Theories .... 147 
Views of Massachusetts on Reconstruction before 1865 

Sumner's theory ; its reception in Massachusetts in 1862 .... 147 

Democratic platform of 1863 . . 148 

Republican position to 1865 : the indestructibility of the states . . 149 

Presidential plan not unquestioned 150 

Radicals, supporting Sumner, believed in confiscation as policy 

and as punishment 151 

Views of Massachusetts on Reconstruction after the Close of the 
War 

Desire to secure in peace the fruits of victory 153 

Demand for negro suffrage 154 

Republican platform, 1866 156 

Democratic opposition to negro suffrage : Democratic platform, 

1865 157 

Champions of negro suffrage ; campaign for the education of 

popular opinion through meetings and publications 157 

John A. Andrew's view 159 

Necessity of securing the fruits of victory and of protecting the 

negro became political capital 160 

PART 2 

Political Issues to 1876 

Republican Claim to the Work of Reconstruction 162 

The Response of Massachusetts to the Policy of the "National 

Union Convention " of 1866 162 

The Impeachment of Johnson 

Foreshadowed by Republican resolutions, 1866 165 

Resolutions and speeches of the Republican convention of 1867 . 165 

Democratic indifference to the issue, 1867 166 

General reluctance to take up the issue 167 



209] CONTENTS 1 3 

FAGK 

General satisfaction with acquittal i6q 

Election of 1868, a Campaign for Party Permanence 170 

Republican Attitude in 1869 and 1870 170 

Democratic Demand for State Rights, 1865-1871 ; Acquiescence in 

the Amendments 171 

The Liberal Republican Movement 

Analysis and description of its adherents 172 

Supporters of the regular Republican cause 175 

Alliance of the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats ; the 

work of F. W. Bird 175 

Weakness of the movement even in western Massachusetts. . . 177 

The vote 177 

Attitude of Massachusetts toward the Constitutional Amendments 

Thirteenth Amendment 179 

Fourteenth Amendment 179 

Fifteenth Amendment 181 

Local Issues Prominent after 1870 181 

Prohibition : the problem ; shifting legislation during 1868-1870 ; 

the Prohibition party organized 182 

Labor reform : ineffective resolutions of the Democrats for labor 
reform ; Labor Reform party organized, 1869 ; platform ; 

strength 184 

Woman Suffrage : before the legislature ; state conventions of 

1870 and 1871 ; before party conventions 187 

The Republican Party and Local Issues 

Attempt to ignore all local issues 188 

Butler episode of 1871 189 

Butler episode of 1873 194 

Republican defeat on the prohibition issue in 1874 195 

Fate of the party after 1874 198 

Restatement 198 

APPENDIXES 

Appendix I : Graph Illustrating in Percentages the Votes in 

Massachusetts, 1856-1876 To face 201 

Appendix II : The Press of Massachusetts during the Sixties . . 201 
Appendix III : Bibliographical Note 212 



INTRODUCTION 

The records of anti-slavery agitation incident to the 
Compromise of 1850, written, for the most part, by the 
friends or champions of freedom, give the impression that 
all of Massachusetts, conscious of the crime of American 
slavery, was determined to be rid of it. This is not the 
fact of the case. The Free-Soilers were actually in the 
minority throughout the decade preceding Republican 
dominance ; but although limited in numbers, they were un- 
limited in determination and ability. They could not win 
of themselves, therefore they won by coalition. But win 
they did, and the success of the minority has given the im- 
pression that it was the will of the majority. 

The Free-Soil party was organized in the state in 1848. 
In 1850 it took advantage of the disaffection among the 
Whigs which followed Webster's " Seventh of March 
speech ", and joining with the Democrats replaced the 
dominant Whig party. This coalition failed to win the 
majority necessary for the choice of governor, but it con- 
trolled the legislature in both 185 1 and 1852. And the 
coalition legislature named a Free-Soiler to uphold anti- 
slavery measures in Congress, namely, Charles Sumner for 
the long-term senatorship, and Henry Wilson for president 
of the state senate; it elected George S. Boutwell, then a 
Democrat, for governor and appointed Democrats to the 
short-term senatorship and the speakership of the legis- 
lature. Thus through controlling the coalition the Free- 
Soilers put forward men who continued to lead and to per- 
sonify the extreme anti-slavery factions of the state. But 
211] 15 



l6 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [212 

such a coalition could not last ; the presidential campaign of 
1852 clearly defined party principles, and the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill of 1854 ended all compromise. 

In consequence of this definition of parties the Whigs 
came into power once more, in' 1853. They had polled a 
plurality of the popular vote during the years of the coali- 
tion, but had failed to elect their candidate for governor be- 
cause a majority was necessary. After 1854 they failed to 
have either a majority or a plurality. The clearly defined 
issue which put an end to the coalition of 185 1 and 1852 
was also dividing the Whig party. In the heightening con- 
test with the Southern advocates of slavery, those following 
the leadership of Webster believed any compromise was 
justifiable which would preserve the Union; Rufus Choate, 
for example, argued that to return a few fugitives was 
better than to sacrifice multitudes in civil strife. Repre- 
sentative leaders of the Whig party were willing if need be 
to submit to the complete nationalization of slavery as the 
lesser of the two cvils.^ Many " Conscience Whigs ", how- 
ever, in distinction from " Cotton Whigs ", were unwilling 
to yield everything tO' one idea. This controversy ended in 
the weakening and final breaking-up of the Whig party. 

The episode of the " Know-Nothings " occurring at this 
juncture, superficially diverted attention from the paramount 
issue. This party arose in protest against the multitude of 
immigrants, Irish Catholic in particular, that had recently 
come to Massachusetts. The increase in the percentage of 
illiterates, dependents and criminals from this element of the 
population was out of all proportion to their numbers, and 
contributed much to the burdens of the substantial people of 
the state. Moreover, the number of foreigners eager for ac- 
tivity in politics alarmed the people generally lest, subject to 

1 Cf, €. F. Adams, Life of C. F. Adams, ch. iv : The " Boston Whig." 



213] INTRODUCTION ly 

the will of a foreign potentate, these strangers should sub- 
vert America's civil and religious liberties. Consequently 
the secret organizations against the invaders grew apace, 
and, combined in the general organization of the American 
party,^ they soon nominated and elected their candidates to 
public office. On the slavery c[uestion the new party pro- 
fessed a neutral stand. This, since it was what the Demo- 
crats were contending for, satisfied those among them who 
desired to join the anti-foreign crusade. Neutrality on the 
slavery question appealed especially to the Whigs also, since 
they were at odds among themselves upon that issue. Ac- 
cordingly analysis of the vote of 1853 and 1854 seems to 
indicate that something like 55 per cent of the Whigs and 
62 per cent of the Democrats deserted their old allegiance 
and that yy per cent of the Free-Soilers merged themselves 
into the new party.' The Know-Nothings swept the state. 
But here again the Free-Soilers were manipulating poli- 
tics, here again they were using coalition. It was necessary 
to the cause of the Free-Soilers to break down the old 
parties. They therefore joined the new party in order to 
defeat the old. But they did more: they used the new 
mechanism to serve their cause. Henry Wilson, in retro- 
spect, said of the party that 

hundreds of thousands who cared less for its avowed prin- 
ciples and purposes than for the higher claims of justice and 
humanity, and had little faith in its permanency, were willing 
to use its machinery to disrupt the Whig and Democratic 
parties in the coniident hope that, out of the disorganized 

1 The nickname " Know-Nothing " is used interchangeably with 
American. 

* G. H. Haynes, " A Know-Nothing Legislature," in American His- 
torical Association, Report, i8g6, p. 180. The composition and work 
of this legislature is admirably analyzed in this article. 



l8 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [214 

masses, there would come a great political party antagonistic 
to the dominating influences of the Slave Power.^ 

This is undoubtedly what resulted. The Know-Nothing 
members of the legislature were inexperienced and the Free- 
Soilers among them directed its work to their ends. 
Henry Wilson was elected senator; seven out of eleven 
congressmen, nominally Know-Nothing, were Free-Soilers, 
and all were understood to be anti-slavery in sympathy. 
Free-Soil sentiment was also shown in the passage of the 
Personal Liberty Bill and in an address to the governor 
demanding the removal of Judge Loring who, as United 
States commissioner, had rendered a decision obnoxious to 
Massachusetts anti-slavery sentiment. The only real Know- 
Nothing legislation was the proposal of an amendment to 
the state constitution restricting office-holding to native born 
and the franchise to residents of twenty-one years." 

The year of the Know-Nothing landslide ( 1854) also wit- 
nessed the ineffectual effort to organize a Republican party. 
The Whigs, in control in 1853, still held the hope of continued 
power, and added an anti-slavery plank to their platform. 
The Know-Nothing candidate, a former conservative Whig, 
was said to be anti-slavery ; the Free-Soil party satisfied the 
more extreme champions of freedom. All the parties ex- 
cepting the pronounced Democrats were thus opposed to the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise; yet only one party, the 
Free-Soil, was willing to place that question above all else, 
and slavery in the territories could not therefore be made 
an issue. The people generally, in fact, were not yet ready 
to join a party dominated by Free-Soilers, as the organizing 
Republican party appeared to be.^ The contest consequently 

' Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, vol. ii, p. 49. 

* This amendment was defeated in the next legislature. 

* Wilson, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 414. 



215] INTRODUCTION I^ 

was between the Whigs and the Know-Nothings. And the 
Know-Nothing party, victorious in its first campaign, gained 
momentum enough to reelect its governor in 1855. 

The landslide that buried the old parties was itself soon 
turned aside. At the national convention in Philadelphia 
in 1855 the Know-Nothing party divided on its declaration 
of principles. The committee on resolutions reported, 
fourteen to thirteen, that congress ought not to prohibit 
slavery in any territory or in the District of Columbia, and 
that it had no power to exclude any state from admission 
to the Union because its constitution recognized slavery. 
The minority demanded a restoration of the Missouri Com- 
promise line, or, failing that, refusal on the part of Congress 
to admit any state formed out of the Kansas-Nebraska ter- 
ritories which tolerated slavery. The debate continued for 
three days. The Northern delegates were well satisfied 
with all planks but the one on slavery. On that point the 
Know-Nothings as a national party were rent in twain. 
Anti-slavery sentiment had always been strong in the Know- 
Nothing party in the North, and when the party was shorn 
of its secrecy during and after the convention of 1855 and 
when it was forced into an open statement of its principles, 
the slavery question came to the fore. In Massachusetts 
the disintegrating American party took the same position 
on the slavery question as the newly organizing Republican 
party, and for the year, 1855, maintained itself in power. 

The Republican party, organized in 1855, was under the 
leadership of Samuel Bowles, E. Rockwood Hoar, Richard 
Henry Dana, Jr., Charles Francis Adams, George S. Bout- 
well and Henry L. Dawes. A conference committee of all 
parties was held and a state convention was called to meet in 
Worcester, September 20, 1855. There Nathaniel P. Banks,, 
(coalition Democrat of 185 1) presided and Richard H. 
Dana, Jr., (Free-Soiler) was chairman of the platform 



20 " POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [216 

committee. The nomination for governor was a subject of 
much debate. The alliance of the Americans depended upon 
the nomination of Gardner; the party in power was not 
willing to resign to a new party. The Republicans, how- 
ever, nominated their own candidate, Julius Rockwell. 
Rockwell and Beach (the Democratic nominee) represented 
the two sides of the great question. But the Americans had 
accepted the anti-slavery issue, thus preventing deflection to 
the new party, and Gardner, backed by the organization 
and prestige of the previous year's victory, was elected. 
Thus for the second time the new Republican party failed : 
in 1854 to organize, in 1855 to elect its candidate. 

In the presidential year 1856 the Americans still held 
to their organization. But since a large proportion of 
them did not differ from the Republicans on the main 
issue, the new party used coalition as had the Free-Soilers 
on former occasions. Desiring to obtain united support 
for Fremont, the Republicans agreed to put up no' candidate 
against Gardner, the representative of American dominance 
in the state. The American party, however, was not yet 
merely an anti-slavery party; there were some who still 
adhered to the original tenets, but were opposed to Fremont. 
They therefore organized as Fillmore-Americans. In the 
election Massachusetts voted for a Republican president 
and a Fremont- American governor. 

But the union of Republican and American parties on 
the main issue permanently weakened the latter as an inde- 
pendent party, and in 1857 the Fremont Americans joined 
with the Republicans in electing Nathaniel P. Banks 
and a Republican legislature. The national problem of 
slavery in the territories had usurped the place of all other 
interests, and the national party founded on that issue 
alone had diverted attention from all other causes. Banks 
and the Republican legislature were retained in power. 



217] INTRODUCTION 21 

The Whigs made no nominations after 1856, the American 
party grew smaller and smaller, disappearing in i860. And 
the Free-Soilers, having failed utterly to grow, again exer- 
cised their influence in coalition : they became merged in the 
more moderate Republican party. 

In i860, therefore, the Democratic party was the lone 
party left, from those of the previous decade, tO' oppose the 
Republicans. Having broken with the Free-Soilers in 1853 
and having championed popular sovereignty and non-inter- 
ference with slavery in the territories, it had, like the Re- 
publican party, drawn unto itself members of the other 
groups who had deserted minor causes for the paramount 
issue. 

Consequently our point of departure for the discussion 
of the Political Opinion in Massachusetts during the Civil 
War and Reconstruction is an analysis of the parties and 
votes in the campaign of i860. 



CHAPTER I 

The Election of i860 

On January 25, i860, Henry Wilson, in the United 
States Senate, made a long and carefully prepared speech, 
which was an enunciation of the purposes and principles of 
the Republican party in , the campaign about to begin. 
Throwing aside the doctrines of the extreme Abolitionists, 
he was content to rest the issue of the campaign on the 
question of the exclusion of slavery from the territories. 
It was the object of the party, he said, 

to preserve the vast territorial possessions of the Republic 
from " the direful effects " of this " dreadful calamity " which 
" has preyed upon the vitals of the Union ", by applying to, 
and engraving upon, those territorial possessions these words, 
" slavery shall be and is forever prohibited " ; words which 
came from the pen of Jefferson, were embodied in the Ordin- 
ance of 1787, and stamped on every foot of the virgin sods 
of the Northwest.^ 

This was commended as a " full, free and frank declara- 
tion of the principles and purposes of the North," - 
and it was echoed, in a somewhat softer tone, by the plat- 
form of the Massachusetts Republicans. That instnmient 

^ Cong. Globe, 36 cong., i sess., p. 571. 

' Springfield Republican, Jan. 26, i860. Throughout the year various 
newspapers continually referred to this speech as the standard of the 
party. 

22 [218 



219] -^^^ ELECTION OF ISGO 23 

was written with a view of winning the conservative vote. 
While it surrendered nothing of the principle that the 
territories be devoted to free labor, it declared that it did 
not contemplate the overthrow of slavery, nor ask the 
suffrage of the people that it might oppress or wrong any 
section, South or North ; but it declared that the Republican 
party was a union party, standing on the principles of the 
fathers, who made freedom national and slavery sectional, 
and that those men were sectional who stood for or against 
slavery in the abstract/ 

This principle of free territory swept so many of the 
anti-slavery champions into the Republican party that the 
conservative phraseology of the platform did not avert a 
storm of denunciation from the opponents of the party. 
The Republicans, said the opposition papers, were not en- 
titled to be known as unionists. Had their allies not long 
preached, "No Union with Slaveholders"? Had not the 
arch-abolitionist announced that " the Constitution was a 
Covenant with Death and an Agreement with Hell " ? 
Republicanism, the Democratic press dogmatically declared, 
was nothing but open and undisguised abolitionism. They 
quoted Sumner's speech, of June 4, i860, on the " Barbar- 
ism of Slavery ", as the standard of the party; they claimed, 
also, that Republican leaders had aided John Brown, and 
they made capital of John A. Andrew's remark, " John 
Brown hiwiself was right ". Thus they tried to make 
the issue union or abolition, knowing that such an issue 
would mean defeat to the Republicans, for Massachusetts, 
however anti-slavery, was not abolitionist in sentiment. - 

^ Boston Advertiser, Aug. 30, i860; Worcester Spy, Aug. 31, i860. 

^ Fuller discussion of Massachusetts' attitude toward the abolition of 
slavery will be found, infra, ch. iv. The Boston Post, Apr. 9, 1869, 
acknowledged the Abolitionists to be in the minority, but claimed 'that 
by intellectual force they controlled the majority. 



24 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [220 

The Republican press, in point of fact, made emphatic 
protests against all imputation of abolitionism; even the 
most strongly anti-slavery paper, the Atlas and Bce,^ de- 
clared angrily : 

No man knows better than the editor of the Post, that the 
opinions entertained of old by Jews and Samaritans were not 
more wide apart than are the opinions held at the present time 
by the Republicans and the Garrisonian Abolitionists. The 
Republicans believe the Constitution of the United States to 
be an Antislavery document, and they bind themselves by their 
actions at the polls and by their oaths of office, and by the 
entire tenure of their political lives, to support and maintain it. 
The Garrisonian Abolitionists, on the other hand, believe the 
Constitution to be a proslavery document, and the Union to be 
a curse — and therefore they will not support the one and labor 
to destroy the other. They are non-voting men, and they will 
not accept office under the Constitution. Now then, we ask, 
can a man be a Republican, and at the same time a Garrisonian 
Abolitionist ? 

Moreover the distinction was emphasized by William Lloyd 
Garrison's Fourth-of-July speech: 

The Republican party means to do nothing, can do nothing, 
for the abolition of slavery in the slave states. . . . The 
Republican party stands on a level with the Fugitive Slave 
Law. It has cursed all opposition to it . . . And shall I vote 
that men who buy and sell and steal their fellow Creatures 
shall have political power put into their hands? . . . No . . . 
I am for meddling with slavery everywhere ... in order to 
effect its eternal overthrow. . . . Excelsior! will be my cry 
..." No Union with slave holders ! " Down with this 

^ A characterization of Massachusetts newspapers for this period will 
be found in appendix ii. The newspapers referred to in the footnotes 
may be understood to be Boston publications unless otherwise desig- 
nated. 



22 1 ] THE ELECTION OF I860 25 

slaveholding government ! Let this " covenant with death 
and agreement with hell " be annulled! ^ 

Two events had, undoubtedly, given substance to Demo- 
cratic accusations; namely, the support given to Sumner in 
1856, and the raid of John Brown, friend of many Massa- 
chusetts Republicans. The truth of the matter, how- 
ever, in the first instance, is that the reelection of Sumner 
in 1856 was due less to his anti-slavery ideals than to a 
feeling of personal loyalty to a representative from Massa- 
chusetts who had received injury while serving his state. 
In the second instance, the John Brown affair was proved, 
in course of time, by a Senate report," not to have been the 
will of the Republican party per se. Moreover it occurred 
long enough before the election for sober judgment in 
Massachusetts to correct charges ^ and to remove suspicions 
of possible guilt of Republicans in general, whatever share 
some individuals may have had in furnishing John Brown 

' Liberator, July 20, i860. 

' This was the " Report of the Select Committee of the Senate ap- 
pointed to inquire into the late invasion and seizure of the pubhc prop- 
erty at Harper's Ferry," Senate Reports, 35 cong., i sess., vol. ii, no. 
278. The committee was appointed at the instance of James M. Mason, 
of Virginia. Globe, 36 cong., i sess., pp. i and 52. 

^Advertiser, Feb. 24, i860: "The excitement about John Brown's in- 
vasion was out of proportion to the original occurrence and could not 
have arisen from it except by constant insistence from a partisan 
press." Ibid., June 19, i860: "If it had occurred a few months earlier 
it might have borne heavily upon the elections. But a poHtical cry of 
this kind cannot last twelve months." Yet these statements are not 
true concerning the formation of the national party platforms. There, 
as Professor Fite states {Campaign of i860, p. 32), the John Brown 
affair " forced the political parties of the country to assume extreme 
positions and declare extreme principles." This difference in effect 
upon national and state opinion is possible because the nominating 
conventions met in the spring, many weeks nearer the Harper's Ferry 
episode. 



26 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [222 

with funds, and it therefore proved useless as political 
capital. The Democratic accusations had greater effect 
within the South, especially in fostering the general opinion 
that a widespread abolition sentiment existed in Massa- 
chusetts in i860. 

But the real character of that anti-slavery sentiment 
which did exist was probably best expressed by the conserv- 
ative Republican in its defense against Democratic mis- 
representation. It explained at length that while the 
Republican party had no intention of interfering with the 
institution of slavery within the states, the party in Virginia 
might organize for emancipation of the slaves in Virginia; 
" But," it declared emphatically, " it is not legitimate to 
organize a Republican party in Massachusetts for the over- 
throw of slavery in Virginia. The United States cannot 
do it." It added that the only means the North could use 
was moral suasion.^ 

The campaign of i860 began early. On March 7 the 
Massachusetts Republicans met to appoint delegates to the 
national convention. Although the appointees were not 
instructed the large majority were believed to favor the 
nomination of Seward.^ At Chicago they so voted. — 
twenty-one out of twenty-six on the first ballot, twenty-two 
on the second, voted for Seward, and eighteen remained 
loyal on the third. But when the nomination of Lincoln 
was assured, ten more Massachusetts votes were transferred 
to him, totaling eighteen out of twenty-six. Then Andrew, 

* Springfield Republican, Feb. 4, i860, also Aug. 4, i860. 

'Ibid., March 10, i860; Worcester Spy, April 19, i860; also Charles 
Eliot Norton to James Russell Lowell, Oct. 14, 1858; and Pearson, Life 
of Andrew, vol. i, p. 112. The minority of the delegates, George S. 
Boutwell and Linius B. Commins, were said (by both Advertiser and 
Post, March 8, i860) to favor Nathaniel Banks, who had been Repub- 
lican governor of Massachusetts 1857-1860. 



223] THE ELECTION OF I860 27 

chairman of the delegation, made a speech seconding 
Evarts' motion for a unanimous nomination.^ 

On returning from the convention, J. W. Baldwin thought 
it necessary to explain to the Worcester ratification meeting 
that the nomination of Lincoln was the strongest that could 
have been made under the circumstances.^ Andrew, how- 
ever, carried the Faneuil Hall meeting with him in en- 
thusiastic endorsement of their candidate: 

Men and brethren [he said] a greater than the battle of 
Lundy's Lane lies before you. A higher duty falls now upon the 
shoulders of the republicans of America than rested upon the 
soldiers of 1814. It is for you to rescue from misgovernment 
a country whose liberties were won by the blood of the Revo- 
lution. ... It is for you to save and preserve that glorious 
heritage which their valor won. The safety and peace of the 
Republic and of the States, the preservation of the Constitu- 
tion, the perpetuation of liberty and of equal rights to all men, 
the salvation of the peopled territories of the United States 
from the curse of human bondage, the prevention of the 
abominable trade in men from Africa, which tends to the 
Africanization and barbarization of the Continent, — these are 
the stakes for which we fight. 

Do you ask who is Abraham Lincoln? . . . My eyes were 
never feasted with the vision of a human face, in which more 
transparent honesty and more benignant kindness were com- 
bined with more of the intellect and firmness which belong 
to masculine humanity. I would trust my case with the hon- 
esty and with the intellect and with the heart and with the 
brain of Abraham Lincoln; and I would trust my country's 
cause in the care of Abraham Lincoln as its chief magistrate, 
while the wind blows and the water runs.^ 

^Advertiser, May 19, i860; Halstead, Caucuses of i860, pp. 146-150. 
Andrew as chairman of his delegation was one of the committee to 
inform Lincoln of his nomination. 

- Worcester Spy, May 30, i860. J. W. Baldwin was editor of the Spy. 

* Advertiser, May 25, i860. 



28 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [224 

In general, however, while Lincoln was praised as honest 
and self-made, the man to sweep the prairies/ many re- 
gretted the crudity of his personal appearance and his lack 
of polish.^ But after the first emotion of disappointment 
at the sacrifice of original preferences was over, men began 
to open their eyes to the real excellence of the choice : — " a 
man full of vigorous life, rough, earnest and practical, 
rousing in his behalf the deepest enthusiasm among the 
simple people who are around him." ^ The Democrats 
ridiculed him as a concession to the mob, a mere local poli- 
tician, known only as an adroit stump orator, " not a rail 
splitter but a union splitter with abolition for his wedge." * 
On the whole, however, little was said about Abraham Lin- 
coln, for little was known.^ Furthermore, there was little 
need to say anything; for this was a campaign of platforms 
rather than personalities. 

The state convention for the nomination of governor met 
in Worcester, Wednesday, August 29. Governor Banks 
had accepted the presidency of the Illinois Central Rail- 
road, but did not announce the fact until it was too late for 
it to be published in the weekly papers which went to press 

' Springfield Rcptiblican, May 19, 26 and 31, i860; Advertiser. May 19 
and 21, i860; and similarly C. R. Lowell wrote (June 30, i860), "A 
man from any other section of the country would not have stood a 
chance in the Northwest against Douglas" (Emerson, Life of C. R. 
Lowell, p. 191). 

* Springfield Republican, May 19, i860; Advertiser, May 19, i860. 
^Advertiser, May 21, i860; similarly Springfield Republican, May 26, 

i860. 

* Post quoted in the Liberator, June 22, i860; Courier, May 19, June 
2, i860; Post, May 19, i860. 

* " Nobody knows good or bad of him."— Wendell Phillips at the New 
England Anti-slavery Convention, May 30, i860, Liberator, June 6, i860. 
There is evidence to this effect in editorials of two October Advertisers 
which defended Lincoln's probable ability to manage foreign affairs. 



225] -^^^ ELECTION OF I860 29 

the Friday before the assembhng of the convention/ He 
hoped to keep local communities in ignorance of the neces- 
sity of nominating a successor and thus prevent them from 
giving their delegates definite instruction, in order that in 
convention they might be persuaded to vote for a conserva- 
tive, preferably Henry L. Dawes. But news of the situa- 
tion leaked out and Andrew's friends were instantly active. 
The support of the convention was easily rallied to him, 
for he had been prominent in state politics for some time 
and was very popular; his recent enthusiastic report of the 
Chicago convention and his appeal for the " safety and 
peace of the Republic, the Union of the States, the preser- 
vation of the constitution, and the perpetuation of liberty 
and equal rights to all men ", had carried the people with 
him. He was duly nominated.' 

In the national Democratic convention at Charleston, 
which met on April 23, we find Massachusetts men very 
prominent. Caleb Cushing, of Newburyport, was its con- 
spicuous chairman; ^ Benjamin F. Butler, of the committee 
on resolutions, presented a persoral minority report, which 
embodied the principles and platform of 1856, demanding 
popular sovereignty in the territories without reference to 

1 It was published in the New York Tribune, Friday, Aug. 24, and 
in the Boston papers Saturday, Aug. 25. 

=" Professor Pearson, of the Institute of Technology, gives this epi- 
sode in interesting detail in his Life of Andrew, vol. i, ch. iii. Pro- 
fessor Pearson treats admirably, in fact, many issues and events dis- 
cussed in the present monograph, especially in the early chapters. 
Parallel reference is therefore continually possible. His discussion is 
naturally very personal, and so thorough is it that there is no occasion 
in this work to stress or treat at length the part of Governor Andrew. 

^ The chairman of the Chicago convention was also a Massachusetts 
man, George Ashmun, of Springfield, a Webster Whig in 1850. George 
Ashmun, however, was less conspicuous than Caleb Cushing, and is, in 
fact, remembered merely as a cool-headed moderator. 



30 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [226 

any supreme court decisions past or future/ The dele- 
gates, however, were not united in their support of any 
policy; they disagreed, in fact, on most of the reso- 
lutions of the convention. This division of opinion was 
evident on their return. Butler explained to his constituents 
that it was useless to vote for Douglas, and he had there- 
fore voted for Jefferson Davis; he said, if the Democrats 
loved Douglas more than their party, then he had failed to 
do his duty as a delegate, but if they loved their party they 
would not condemn him.- Of the other faction, Isaac 
Davis explained to his constituents in Worcester : 

We were willing to stand upon all the provisions of the Con- 
stitution, as expounded by the Supreme Court ; but when they 
asked us to go one step further, and ignore popular sover- 
eignty, and deny the right of man to self-government, and 
make slavery a national institution, for myself I could not and 
would not consent.^ 

This same division of opinion persisted in Baltimore 
where, because of the failure of the Charleston convention 
to make nominations, the delegates reassembled on June 18. 
Here, as at Charleston, Caleb Cushing was elected chair- 
man; but here he resigned because he did not approve of 
the exclusion of the Charleston seceders. On the call of 
the states, he with fifteen other Massachusetts delegates led 
by Benjamin F. Butler, withdrew from the convention. 
While those remaining voted for Douglas, the sixteen 

1 E. D. Fite, Campaign of i860, p. 106 ; Halstead, Caucuses of i860, 
pp. 46-56. 

2 Post, May 17, i860. Speech of Butler at Lowell, May 15, i860. 

' Worcester Spy, May 14, i860. " There is a crack in the democratic 
party, and there is a nigger in the crack, and the nigger cannot be got 
out of it," was the caustic comment of the Springfield Republican, June 
22, i860. Less caustically, the Worcester Spy, April 30, i860. 



227] THE ELECTION OF I860 ^I 

seceders with one hundred sixty-seven or more from 
other states met in convention which, with Caleb Gushing 
presiding, adopted the majority report of Charleston and 
nominated Breckinridge and Lane/ 

Early in the campaign Douglas visited Massachusetts. 
Crowds gathered to hear him. Warrington - declared that 
" the mobs " went to hear the man who had destroyed the 
hitherto invincible Democratic party.* But although he 
could win applause for his views of popular sovereign from 
even an anti-slavery audience,* he did not unite the Demo- 
crats of Massachusetts. 

Two separate nominating conventions met September 12 : 
the Douglas men in Springfield, the nationals in Boston. 
The Springfield meeting, with Oliver Stevens as chairman, 
adopted resolutions which, adhering to the Democratic 
doctrine of 1848 and 1856, opposed the exercise of any 
jurisdiction by Congress over the matter of slavery in the 
territories,^ and nominated Erasmus Beach for governor.* 
The meeting in Tremont Temple, Boston, was a more 
enthusiastic gathering. Here the seceders of Baltimore 
were conspicuous : Dr. George B. Loring presided, Ben- 
jamin F. Butler was nominated for governor and Caleb 
Gushing made an important speech. In general, the speeches 
condemned the democracy of squatter sovereignty, and 
stood for the democracy which had proclaimed : " It is the 

' Advertiser, June 14 to 25, i860; Halstead, op. cit., pp. 205-206, 224. 

2 W. S. Robinson, the Boston correspondent of the Springfield Re- 
publican. Cf. appendix ii, p. 204 and note 3; and Pearson, op. cit., vol. 
i, p. 59- 

^ Springfield Republican, July 20, i860. 

* Springfield Republican, July 21, i860. 

* Post, Sept. 13, i860. 

^ Erasmus Beach had been the Democratic nominee every year since 
1855. 



32 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [228 

duty of the Federal Government, in all its departments, to 
protect, when necessary, the rights of persons and prop- 
erty in the Territories and wherever else its constitutional 
authority extends." But Caleb Gushing attacked the Re- 
publican party, declaring that its motive power, its main- 
spring, its vital spirit, was anti-slavery fanaticism. He 
denounced John A. Andrew for defending the Personal- 
Liberty Laws. He asserted the alleged belief of the South- 
ern Democrats that if Mr. Lincoln should be elected, the 
Republicans would be obliged, under penalty of prompt 
dissolution, to attack the domestic rights of the states. 
Moreover, he held that Southerners would be unworthy the 
name of Americans if they did not defend their rights by 
constitutional means, and if necessary by extra-constitu- 
tional means. Therefore he concluded : " Let all those 
among us who, in the blind zeal of stupid negro worship, 
would thus drive the Southern states into revolution, 
go on." 

Yet notwithstanding such threats of danger, and the 
confidence of prominent leaders that salvation lay in the 
election of Breckinridge, and notwithstanding the loyal 
support of the Boston Post, which in March, i860, had 
said, " Seward's irrepressible conflict can bring no good to 
our New England manufactures. Vote it doivnT ,^ still 
when the election came, Breckinridge polled but a small 

^ The Post had quarreled vvith Douglas on Kansas issues and opposed 
him consistently, and (June 25, i860) it blamed him for the split in the 
party; (on May 2, i860 an editorial demanded conciliation on terms 
of the supreme court decision) and on May 19 it asked : " Will the 
vast commercial manufacturing interests of the North indorse this 
horrible and suicidal war on the South?" In line with this question, 
Fite, op. cit., p. 121, says: "The merchant class of the North East be- 
came conspicuously lukewarm for Seward after the cr)'- for John 
Brown began to threaten the loss of Southern trade." 



229] -^^^ ELECTION OF I860 ^^ 

part of the total vote, and was beaten by Douglas in even' 
county save Barnstable and Nantucket.^ 

A so-called Third party had been organized in Boston, 
on December 8, 1859. " In view of the present disturbed 
condition of public sentiment and dangers which threaten 
our union ", a call had been sent to those '' who honor and 
cherish that Union — who mean to maintain the constitution 
of the United States, and faithfully to carry out all its re- 
quirements and obligations." They met' soon after the 
John Brown episode, and the speeches of Edward Everett 
and Caleb Gushing discussed that outrage. Resolutions 
were adopted sympathizing with the people of Virginia, 



1 Vote by 


counties in i86c 


>: 


















Douglas 


Breckinridge 






Counties. 


Republican. 


D] 


iM. 


Dem. 


Union. 




Pres. 


Gov. 


Pres. 


Gov. 


Pres. 


Gov. 


Pres. 


Gov. 


Essex 


14,805 


14,583 


4,277 


4,318 


889 


821 


3,188 


3,313 


Middlesex. 


17,580 


16,954 


7,022 


6,878 


923 


847 


4,794 


4,975 


Suffolk ... 


10,306 


9,906 


4,783 


4,795 


937 


1,041 


5,426 


5,708 


Norfolk .. 


8,864 


8,628 


3,590 


3,552 


452 


425 


2,987 


3,149 


Plymouth . 


6,855 


6,795 


1,432 


1,421 


284 


278 


1,874 


1,507 


Barnstable. 


2,367 


2,341 


134 


134 


408 


421 


343 


359 


Bristol . . . 


7,854 


7,460 


1,752 


■^,673 


465 


361 


673 


635 


Worcester 


16,015 


15,722 


4,862 


4,696 


302 


283 


1,744 


1,893 


Franklin . . 


• 4,051 


3,895 


914 


879 


328 


341 


135 


148 


Hampshire. 


5,184 


5,081 


1,742 


2,094 


522 


585 


299 


315 


Hampden . 


4,598 


4,552 


578 


624 


229 


234 


182 


198 


Berkshire . 


5,209 


5,123 


2,782 


2,877 


199 


124 


238 


351 


Dukes 


342 


342 


155 


121 


64 


58 


58 


52 


Nantucket. 


437 


420 


32 


32 


69 


71 


76 


76 



These figures are taken from the Advertiser. They vary a trifle from 
those in the Tribune Almanac, but, inasmuch as the almanac did not 
give the votes for governor, and since the purpose is com.parison, it 
seemed wise to take both from the same source. 

2 Levi Lincoln was president; six of the vice-presidents were George 
Peabody, George Ticknor Curtis, Benjamin E. Bates, Luther V. Bell, 
Benjamin F. Butler and Amos A. Lawrence. These men continued to 
be prominent in affairs and illustrate types of opinion. 



34 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [230 

and lamenting intestine dissensions. The assembled dele- 
gates, furthermore, declared unchangeable union indispens- 
able to the prosperity of all and to our existence as a civi- 
lized nation, and proposed zealously to cultivate and pro- 
mote every influence likely to advance and maintain the 
most amicable relations among the whole people of the 
United States/ 

Those who joined the party were conservatives, mainly 
Cotton Whigs, who believed with Rufus Choate that 
" Union of the states " stood above everything else, and 
that slavery and other evils would come to an end sooner if 
the Union should be preserved than if any division should 
be made.' The party therefore became a league on the 
Union platform against Democrats, North and South. ^ It 
was opposed to the Republicans also, because of the pres- 
ence among them of abolitionists, said by George Hillard 

^ Merriam {Life of Bowles, vol. i, p. 264) says : " This party recog- 
nized what the Republican and its party wholly failed to appreciate — 
that the union was in imminent danger." In substantiation of this is a 
manuscript letter from Edward Everett to Robert C. Winthrop, Nov. 
13, 1859: "It [the Harper's Ferry affair] is a natural result of the 
anti-slavery agitation. That has been for years carried on ; and is one 
of the Precursors of the final catastrophe, which cannot, I think, be 
far distant." 

^ From a letter of the late Rufus Choate, nephew of the great orator; 
also S. G. Brown, Life of Choate, p. 303, "We join ourselves to no 
party that does not carry the flag and keep step to the music of the 
union " ; and cf. introduction, supra, p. 16. Similarly the Courier, May 
26, i860. 

* A letter from Amos A. Lawrence to J. J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, 
Jan. 6, i860, shows that Lawrence was a prime mover. He wrote: " If 
you will send me two notes of three lines each in your own handwrit- 
ing, asking me whether the Union-loving men of Massachusetts are 
ready to unite with the opponents of the democratic party in the othef 
states for the defeat of that party and all extremists, I will promise to 
organize this whole state in eight weeks." 



231] THE ELECTION OF 1860 ^^ 

to be the life-blood and vital force of the Republican party/ 
But exactly what policy would be pursued on definite issues 
by the new organization was unknown; all that was clear 
was that its members believed agitation injurious to the 
welfare of the country and that the platform of the Repub- 
licans was unwise." They even prophesied in September, 
i860, that in the event of Lincoln's election a Southern 
convention would consult on advising congressmen from 
the Southern states to resign.^ Furthermore, they believed 
their candidates (Bell and Everett, nominated in Balti- 
more) to be better qualified by both education and experi- 
ence than were the candidates of the Republican party.* 

So much for the theories of the new party. Statistics 
show some interesting facts. First, some of its members 
believed that although Bell was high-minded and honorable, 
his was a statesmanship of the past. This faction (smaller 
by statistics than by reputation) voted for Lincoln.^ Sec- 
ond, the vote throughout the state shows that the Union 
party was of Boston and its environs; its only appreciable 
strength was in the eastern counties where were the trading 
centers — Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk and Norfolk. Ply- 
mouth and Worcester had a few more than the other agri- 

1 Courier, Mar. 30, i860. Hillard's speech at the convention, Mar. 29, 
i860. George Hillard with George Lunt edited the Boston Courier. 

^Advertiser and Springfield Republican, March 30, 7860; Merriam, 
op. cit., vol. i, p. T^Z- The drafts of resolutions made by George Hil- 
lard, George T. Curtis and Amos A. Lawrence, found among the Law- 
rence MSS, substantiate this statement. 

^ Courier, Sept. 8, i860. Report of a Constitutional Union meeting. 

* Courier, May 11, and June 27, i860. 

5 Dr. Samuel A. Green (late vice-president of the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society) said this was true in his own case and true also in 
that of many of his friends. With the exception of Berkshire, Hamp- 
den, Bristol and the islands, the Union vote for governor was larger 
than for president. 



36 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [232 

cultural counties/ This statistical fact substantiates Henry 
L. Dawes' characterization of the party as " a class of 
simple-minded people who believe that the sun rises in 
Chelsea, comes up over State Street, hovers about the state 
house, and sinks in the waters of Back Bay." ^ They were 
tlie elderly Whigs " who turned their eyes from the future 
back to the past " and refused to be gathered into the Re- 
publican party, who objected to John A. Andrew's Brown- 
ism though they forgot that their candidate for governor, 
Amos A. Lawrence, had been chairman of the Kansas Emi- 
grant Aid Committee. And, third, election returns show 
that the only success achieved by the Union Party was the 
election of Appleton instead of Burlingame as Congress- 
man in the fifth district.^ 

Another local episode of the campaign was the contest 
between Goldsmith F. Bailey, nominee of the Republican 
party for the ninth district, and Eli Thayer, its former 
representative. The regular Republican organization re- 
jected Thayer because his vote on the New Mexico bill 
showed his absolute belief in popular sovereignty. "^ They 

1 Cf. supra, p. 2>3, "ote i. 

^ Advertiser, Sept. 19, i860. Sumner characterized the same party as 
" Brahmins who imagine themselves of better clay than others, or of 
Chinese themselves, cousins of the Sun and Moon." — Works, vol. v, p. 
343. And his friend Edward L. Pierce called them " antipathetic to 
the anti-slavery sentiments," and claimed that the five thousand votes 
given to Bell and Everett were cast by those having " a mercantile 
interest or connection." — Pierce, Life of Sumner, vol. iii, p. 619. 

' William Appleton had been elected to Congress for 1831-1855 against 
Burlingame, nominee of the Free-Soilers. He was a wealthy manufac- 
turer of high character. — Adams, Life of Dana, vol. ii, p. 248. He re- 
signed in 1861 and was succeeded by Samuel Hooper. 

* Worcester Spy, June 4 and Aug. 4, i860. — He did not vote to re- 
move slavery from New Mexico, for he said Congress could not pass 
territorial bills. Sumner argued against Thayer : " Let it be the Pop- 
ular Sovereignty of the American people, counted by millions and 
assembled in congress, rather than the tyrannical irresponsible sover- 
eignt]' of a handful of squatters."-^fForArj, vol. v, p. 335. 



233] -^^^ ELECTION OF I860 ^y 

claimed that he was more Democratic than the Democrats, 
even though he was an active anti-slavery man. All the 
newspapers opposed him, so that his support, aside from 
his own speeches, was through broadsides published by an 
organization friendly to him, the Central Republican Club,^ 
which was not a part of the regular Republican organiza- 
tion. These broadsides went to prove that Thayer, as a 
delegate to the national convention, supported the Chicago 
platform. But when he desired a public debate with Sum- 
ner, the accepted Republican, Thayer put himself in oppo- 
sition to the organized party, who claimed that he was in 
league with the Democrats." Thus although his own efforts 
won him many votes, yet his own popularity could not off- 
set party influence,^ and Goldsmith F. Bailey was elected. 

Aside from these two episodes in the fifth and ninth dis- 
tricts, there seems to have been little interest in the candi- 
dates. Occasionally, in the eastern part of the state, 
Wide-Awakes, each uniformed in cap and cape, and carry- 
ing a lamp on a staff, paraded through the streets and 
aroused a momentary enthusiasm.'* But in i860 there was 
no one burning question such as " bleeding Kansas " of 

' A few of these broadsides are in the possession of Miss Eva Thayer. 

"^Sumner MSS, Thayer to Sumner, Oct. 29, i860, and Baldwin to 
Sumner, Oct. 29, i860. 

^ The vote of Worcester county for congressman — Bailey 9,776, 
Thayer 7,953, scattering 134. — Spy, Nov. 8, i860. Hoar, in his Auto- 
biography, vol. i, p. 190, makes the following characterization: "Thayer 
was a sincere anti-slavery man. But he liked to do things in peculiar 
and original ways of his own, and was impatient of slow and old- 
fashioned methods. So he got estranged from his Republican brethren, 
and, defeated in i860, took no part in public activities during the war, 
became somewhat soured, and landed in the Democratic party." 

* Sumner, Works, vol. v, p. 344, note. The Bangor Wide-Awakes 
came to Boston for a demonstration. They were headed by eight 
giants, and six Penobscot Indians in war costume. There were ten 
thousand Wide-Awakes present. Also Worcester Spy, Oct. 18, i860. 



38 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [234 

1856. Instead the platform dealt with a general policy, 
and few except leaders and thinkers were conscious of a 
crisis.^ Indeed the vote, which maintained a substantial 
Republican majority had not increased over that of four 
years previous.- Yet notwithstanding these facts and fig- 
ures the opposition was not inconsiderable; it was persis- 
tent, insistent and strong out of proportion to its numbers. 
Nevertheless when the election was over, the customary 
acquiescence prevailed. The Constitutional Unionists, in 
particular, were willing to wait and see how things would 
turn out; they were willing to allow the Republicans a fair 
chance. They professed to see the advantage of Lincoln's 
being a western man, for he would not need to make New 
England fanaticism, or New York political anti-slavery, a 
part of his politics; they therefore advised the South to 
pause and see what manner of man had been elected, for 
he, as president-elect, was entitled to the forbearance and 
consideration due the representative of the people. Ac- 
cordingly the Courier declared : " The government of the 
United States is a government " which " must obey the 
law of its being, in whosesoever hands its authority is 
lodged." ^ Of the minority, a few extreme radicals, always 
demanding abolition even at the cost of union, could not 
be satisfied by a Republican victory, but the most conceded 
with Wendell Phillips that the election of Lincoln was a 
milestone marking progress ; for, although he did not claim 

* Lowell, Atlantk (October, i860), vol. vi, p. 492; Merriam, op. cit., 
vol. i, p. 259; Springfield Republican, Aug. 6, i860. C. F. Adams, Auto- 
biography (p. 69), claims that his father, even, and Sumner had no 
conception of the momentousness of the crisis. 

2 Rep. Dent. Fillmore-Am. Consti.-Union 

1856 108,190 39,240 19,626 

i860 106,533 34.372 (Douglas) 22,331 

5,939 (Breckinridge) 

' Courier, Nov. 10 and 17, i860. 



235] ^^^ ELECTION OF 1860 ^^ 

that the negro should be a citizen, still the president-elect 
represented an anti-slavery idea/ And since this was true, 
a number of pronounced Democrats persistently prophesied 
disaster, for, believing that safety to the Union lay in non- 
interference by Congress with slavery in any state or ter- 
ritory, they held that the " rail-splitter " would become the 
" union-splitter." " Nevertheless, in spite of all the threats 
and prophecies of disunion preceding and following the 
election, the victors, believing that these threats were used 
merely for political intimidation,* were confident, now that 
the election was over, that things would quiet down. Fol- 
lowing the Republican triumph, then, victors and van- 
quished united in a common feeling of confidence and 
security. 

1 Sears, Wendell Phillips, p. 212. 

-Liberator, June 22, i860, quoted from the Post. The Pilot was less 
rabid than the Post. It said it would not do anything for or against 
those elected. And it even hoped that by March 4 the passions of the 
campaign should have subsided. — Nov. 17, i860. But on March 2, 1861. 
the Post declared : " We are the political opponents of the Republican 
party, and expect to remain so." 

* Advertiser, Sept. 11, i860; Worcester Spy, Oct. 25, i860; Bee, Nov. 
2, i860; Hampshire Gazette. Nov. 13, i860; Springfield Republican, Nov. 
10, i860, said : " The South understands its interests too well to be 
betrayed into such a mistake." Sumner at Framingham, October 11, 
showed that seven times since the adoption of the constitution the 
menace of disunion had been made to play its part, and there was 
nothing in it which should not be treated with indignant contempt, as it 
was merely a threat and nothing more. — Works, vol. v, pp. 296-300. 



CHAPTER II 

The Period of the Secessions — November 7 to April 

15, 1860^ 

Active measures of disunion on the part of South Caro- 
lina soon disturbed, even within RepubHcan circles, the feel- 
ing of confidence which prevailed after the election. In- 
deed, real serious action came as a surprise, for, although 
there had been much talk about secession before the election, 
the belief that it was a mere threat had been widespread 
and confidently held, and there seemed for a time to be in- 
difference as to the portentousness of events. The New 
York Tribune, for example, conceded that the South was 
right," and the Springfield Republican said that the uni- 
versal expression of all parties was : " If South Carolina 
wants to go out of the Union, let her go and say no more 
about it." ^ Apathy to disunion was, in fact, so great that 

' There is no election within these months whereby we may ascertain 
in figures the numbers of adherents to various opinions. It is a period 
of discussion merely. Newspapers, pamphlets, memoirs, and corres- 
pondence — published and unpubHshed — are abundant. It is from this 
mass of material that the chapter has been compiled. Its purpose is to 
show the gradations of opinion from the union-breaking abolitionist to 
the pro-slavery conciliator. 

^ November 30, i860. 

* November 16, i860. In the same tenor Washington Gladden tells 
that Henry Ward Beecher, in Boston, replied to the question, Will they 
secede? with, "I don't believe they will, and I don't care if they do." 
Recollections p. 102. And among the Sumner MSS a letter from 
Edward Everett Hale is dated: "December 21, i860, and of the Dis- 
united States the first day." Moreover, he remarked: "We are taking 
40 ^ [236 



237] THE PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 41 

an agent of the Southern states found no difficulty in pur- 
chasing arms and ammunition in the neighborhood of 
Springfield/ Furthermore, the " reliable " Advertiser, 
whose standard was the stock market, said there was no 
great cause for alarm; it argued that the South could not 
persist in a policy which would bring commercial distress 
to her communities." 

Nevertheless, as early as November 10, the same paper 
had remarked that an uneasy feeling was arising among 
Northern capitalists, which is evidence that the South Caro- 
lina movement was beginning to be taken seriously. A 
little later the Advertiser asserted that secession had no 
validity under the Constitution,^ and on December 22, that 
South Carolina was as much in the union as ever.* Thus 
when vague threat became reality all indifference vanished. 
It was all wrong, unconstitutional and unwarrantable, was 
the verdict of the anti-Republican Courier,^ which, in the 
bitterness of the campaign, had prophesied that Republican 
victory would " carry disunion with it as a logical result." ^ 

secession with due calmness here." Even Sumner himself, C. F. Adams, 
Jr., came to believe, was also of this opinion when opposing Adams 
and conciliatory measures in the winter of 1861. Autobiography, p. 86. 
^ The Springfield Republican, December 29, i860, attributed the in- 
difference not to any disloyalty, but to the fact that the people had 
heard the cry so often that they paid no attention to it. 

* November 12 and 15, i860. Also the view of the Worcester Spy, 
November 14, i860; and the Liberator, November 16, i860, asked; 
" Will they secede from the Union? Will they jump into the Atlantic? 
Will they conflagrate their own dweUings, cut their own throats, and 
enable their slaves to rise in successful insurrection? Perhaps they 
will — probably they will not! By their bullying and raving they have 
many times frightened the North into a base submission to their de- 
mands — they expect to do it again !" 

* Advertiser, Nov. 16, i860. 

* Also the view of the Springfield Republican, Dec. 25, i860. 

* Courier, Nov. 26, i860. ' Courier, Aug. i, i860. 



42 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [238 

John Bell, presidential candidate of the Constitutional 
Unionists, expressed the party's position, saying : " By no 
principle of public law, by no code of morals, by no law of 
earth or heaven, would Mississippi or any other state be 
justified, under existing circumstances, in withdrawing 
from the Union/ Even the Breckinridge Post, by March, 
declared : " Secession can be justified upon no basis what- 
ever. It is utterly wrong." - 

In fact, in January, when Amos A. Lawrence described 
the general sentiment, he could write : 

It turns out that the nullifiers have no party, not a solitary 
press, nor so far as can be seen a single sympathizer in any 
of the non-slaveholding States. On the contrary their 
violence has welded together the whole Northern people in one 
compact body, determined to sustain the Government at Wash- 
ington — the Democrats of both wings are equally decided with 

the Republicans.^ 

These defenders of the union defined it as " a government 
of the people instituted by the people of all the states," ■* 
not a compact between the states which any states may re- 
scind at pleasure.^ Secession, consequently, was declared 

* Advertiser, Dec. 13, i860. ^ Post, March 2, 1861. 
3 Lawrence MSS, to S. R. Sneed, Jan. 15, 1861. 

* Advertiser, Jan. 23, 1861. The Worcester Spy, Dec. 4, i860, said: 
" The people of the states created this compact, and they alone can 
destroy it." Gov. Banks declared that " Whether the government is a 
compact between states or a union of the people, it is nevertheless a 
government, and cannot be dissolved at the bidding of any dissatisfied 
party." Mass. Senate Doc, 1861, no. i, p. 35. 

^ Parker, in "The Right of Secession," published in North American 
Review, vol. xciii, p. 224, said : " It is a perversion of terms to call the 
' supreme law of the land ' a compact between the states, which any 
state may rescind at pleasure. It is not itself an agreement, but is the 
result of an agreement." Similarly, J. F. Clarke, Secession (pam.), 
pp. 21, 22. 



239] I'l'i^ PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 43 

to have no legal meaning, for the Constitution of the United 
States acts directly upon the citizens and not through the 
state upon them. Moreover, the Constitution and the laws 
of the United States were held to be " the supreme law ; 
and the act of a state, ordinance or statute, which conflicts 
with that supreme law, shrivels into a nullity. To attempt 
to defeat it by a resolution is folly. To attempt to defeat 
the National Government by organized resistance, by force 
of arms, is treason." ^ 

In this connection Lowell, the most politically wise of the 
literary men, explained clearly that " the United States are 
not a German Confederation, but a unitary and indivisible 
nation, with a national life to protect, a national power to 
maintain, and national rights to defend against any and 
every assailant, at all hazards." In the same connection he 
humorously suggests that if secession is a right, each state 
may exercise such a right at any time it sees fit, and " we 
shall need something like a Fugitive Law for runaway re- 
publics," and we must secure treaty provisions that foreign 
powers " shall help us catch any delinquent who may take 
refuge with them." " Therefore it seemed to him, as 
to many others, that the nation needed an Andrew Jackson, 
" an hour of Old Hickory, or old Rough-and-Ready — some 
man who could take command and crystalize this chaos into 
order." " 

There were some, however, who differed from this opin- 
ion. Caleb Gushing, for example, said to the citizens of 
Newburyport: " If the people cannot overcome the Repub- 
licans and compel them to cease from agitation of the 

* Thomas, Suggestions upon the Personal-Liberty Law and "Seces- 
sion" (so-called), (pam.) p. 17. 
' Atlantic Monthly (Feb., 1861), vol. vii, p. 237, "E Pluribus Unum." 
' Lowell, Letters, vol. i, p. 308. Similarly, Springfield Republican, 
Dec. 17, i860, and Worcester Spy, Dec. 22, i860. 



44 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [240 

slavery question, it may be best to separate; best for us at 
the North as for them at the South." ^ Likewise Robert 
C. Winthrop regarded the Southern people as fully entitled 
to achieve their independence if they saw fit, although he 
doubted that it would be to their advantage." And Edward 
Everett, not yet joined to the party of the Union, said : " If 
our sister states must leave us, in the name of heaven let 
them go in peace." ^ 

The Abolitionists as well as the pro-slavery sympathizers 
would let them go; both were, in fact, glad of the secession 
movement. Indeed these reformers rejoiced over the 
thought of a Northern confederacy, freed from responsi- 
bility for the protection of a system of bondage; the dis- 
eased section would be " sloughed off ". They would not 
now have to withdraw from the Union,"* for without the 
slave states the Constitution was no longer " a Covenant 
with Death and an Agreement with Hell " ; ^ they could, 
therefore, share in the government with a clear conscience. 
Their jubilation was boldly voiced by Wendell Phillips in 
Boston on January 20, when he said : 

" The Lord reigneth ; let the earth rejoice," ..." the Cove- 
nant with Death " is annulled. ..." The Agreement with 
Hell " is broken in pieces. The chain which has held the 
slave system since 1787 is parted. Thirty years ago Southern 

* Post, Dec. 13, i860. Speech of Caleb Gushing. 
'^ Winthrop, Memoirs, p. 219. 

' Letter from Edward Everett in the Post, Feb. 6, 1861. 

* Liberator, July 6. 1861 ; Sears, Wendell Phillips, pp. 217-218. Later 
they condemned the action of the South because it was unjustifiable, 
while their own demands were for the principles of the Declaration of 
Independence; Liberator, April 19, 1861. 

*The motto of the Liberator in 1861 was: "The Constitution is a 
Covenant with Death and an Agreement with Hell." Later, on Decem- 
ber 13, 1861, it was changed to, " Proclaim Liberty throughout the 
Land to all the Inhabitants thereof." 



241 ] THE PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS .^5 

leaders, sixteen years ago Northern Abolitionists, announced 
their purpose to seek the dissolution of the American union. 
Who dreamed that success would come so soon ! ^ 

Neither of these groups, the pro-slavery sympathizers 
and the Abolitionists, would, of course, make any effort to 
reunite the states ; nor would they approve of any compro- 
mise.^ Furthermore, Abolitionists were opposed to war as 
such; and, according to this ideal, their Liberator de- 
manded : " Let there be no Civil War, but a separa- 
tion BETWEEN THE FREE AND SLAVE STATES, IN THE SPIRIT 

OF Abraham and Lot." The Quakers naturally joined in 
this peace policy.^ And even some anti-slavery men who 
were not extreme Abolitionists thought the national part- 
nership by no means worth restoring; they had " a horror 

^ Reported in the Liberator, January 25, 1861. Similar sentiment is 
found in Sumner MSS, in letters from William L. Garrison (February 
25, 1861), from Albert G. Browne (December 19, i860), from Amasa 
Walker (April 13, 1861), from William Claflin (January 4, 1861), and 
from F. W. Bird (January 6, 1861). Also in pamphlets, Blanchard, 
The War of Secession, and J. F. Clarke, Secession. The latter said : 
" We must not sacrifice the soul of our institutions for the sake of pre- 
serving the body; for we should, in that case, have only a dead body." 

* Phillips : " You may as well dam up Niagara with bulrushes as bind 
our anti-slavery purpose with Congressional Compromise." — Liberator, 
January 25, 1861. And Amasa Walker (in Sumner MSS, April 13, 
1861) : " I think we ought to do all we can to get them out as soon as 
possible." 

^ Whittier wrote, " 16, i mo., 1861," A Word for the Hour: — 
" They break the hnks of Union, shall we light 
The fires of Hell to weld anew the chain 
On that red anvil where each blow is pain? 

Pity, forgive, but urge them back no more." 

Whittier also wrote Sumner, March 31, 1861 : " The conflicting rumors 
of Washington trouble me. I am for peace, not by conceding our prin- 
ciples, but by simply telling the slave states to 'go' — border ones and 
all." Pierce, Life of Sumner, vol. iv, p. 5. 



46 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [242 

of war and grave doubt whether such a question could be 
settled by force." Indeed, for a time it seemed more than 
doubtful whether the Northern people had any strong and 
passionate sentiment of love for the Union, such as would 
inspire them to fight for its maintenance/ 

On the whole, in the North there were, as Merriam says, 
two general sentiments : first, " the government must not 
give up its own to the seceders, must not surrender its forts 
or renounce the collection of customs duties " ; second, " it 
was impracticable to compel by arms the submission and 
return of the seceded states," - for, as the judicious Repub- 
lican said, " The United States are infinitely better off with- 
out them than with them, if only chained to the Union by 
force and fear." But, although that paper advocated a 
peace policy, it believed there was a point beyond which 
forbearance was submission ; ^ and that precise point was 
clear to all minds : when a state or any portion of its people 
resist the laws, the government must enforce them. This 
brings us back to the first proposition of Merriam that the 
government must not give up its own to the seceders, must 
not renounce the collection of customs duties/ 

' Merriam, Life of Bowles, vol. i, p. 284; also Springfield Republican, 
November 2, i860 ; and Gladden, Recollections, p. 103, says : " Up to 
the middle of December this policy was tentatively advocated by a good 
many anti-slavery men. The reason for it was in the horror of war, 
and in the grave doubt whether such a question could be settled by 
force. Gradually these doubts were overborne, and the Websterian 
sentiment of the indissolubility of the union began to prevail." 

^ Merriam, op. cit., vol. i, p. 283. And Advertiser, Nov. 16, i860: 
"There will be no holding of the state as a conquered province; it 
will simply be a case of the paralysis of the arm of federal authority 
within the state." 

* Springfield Republican, March 19, 1861. 

* Hampshire Gazette, Dec. 4, i860; Springfield Republican, Dec. 25, 
i860; Advertiser, Dec. 28, i860; Thomas, Suggestions upon the Per- 
sonal-Liberty Law and Secession (so-called), (pam.) p. 20. 



243] '^^^ PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 47 

The various gradations of opinion are well described by 
Oliver Wendell Holmes in a letter to John Lothrop Motley, 
February 16, 1861 : 

From the impracticable Abolitionist, as bent on total separa- 
tion from the South as Carolina is on secession from the 
North, to the Hunker, or Submissionist, or whatever you 
chose to call the wretch who would sacrifice every thing and 
beg the South's pardon for offending it, you find all shades 
of opinion in our streets. If Mr. Seward or Mr. Adams 
moves in favor of compromise, the whole Republican party 
sways, like a field of grain, before the breath of either of 
them. If Mr. Lincoln says he shall execute the laws and 
collect the revenue, though the heavens cave in, the backs of 
the Republicans stiffen again, and they take down the old 
Revolutionary king's arms, and begin to ask whether they can 
be altered to carry minie bullets.^ 

The " Hunker or Submissionist '' referred to was largely 
of the manufacturing and trading interests. Of such 
John Murray Forbes wrote to Sumner : "Our money people 
here have been badly frightened and many decent-looking 
men, if called upon to act now, would try to have a kind of 
compromise made that would promise to patch up difficul- 
ties and their pockets." " Repeated evidence of this finan- 
cial embarrassment may be found in contemporary corres- 
pondence; Charles Eliot Norton, for example, wrote: 
" There is universal alarm, general financial pressure, great 
commercial embarrassment. The course of trade between 
the North and the South is interrupted, many manufactur- 
ing establishments are closed or working on short time, and 
there are many failures; and many workmen thrown out 
of employment." ^ And from North Bridgewater, Ply- 

^ Morse, Life and Letters of Holmes, vol. ii, p. 154. 

' Sumner MSS, from John Murray Forbes, December 22, i860. 

^ C. E. Norton, Letters, vol. i, p. 213, to A. H. Clough, December, i860. 



48 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [244 

mouth County, Sumner learned that many people " are suf- 
fering extremely from the general depression of Business. 
A large number of our Manufacturers, who depend wholly 
upon Southern Trade, are unable to continue business, thus 
throwing hundreds of our poor Mechanics out of employ- 
ment." ^ 

The individual case of a Harvard student is of interest 
in this connection ; he wrote to President Felton : 

When I first entered College, last September, I fully expected 
to be able to pay the charge of advanced standing amounting 
to ($45) forty-five Dollars. But my father, who is con- 
nected with the Southern trade, has experienced many diffi- 
culties in meeting his payments and requests me to petition 
the Corporation of Harvard College to defer the payment of 
the charge until next term.- 

In the interests of this class the Reverend J. J. Bowen, 
rector of St. Stephen's, Pittsfield, made a plea for concilia- 
tion ; ^ he explained how credit had been shaken already, 
and concluded : 

If then this union be actually severed, would not public and 
private credit be instantly destroyed, commerce suspended, and 
an arrest put upon every industry? How long would the 
manufacturers of Pittsfield and New England, wealthy as 

^ Sumner MSS, from L. B. Holbrook, December 22, i860. 

' Harvard College Papers, Second Series, vol. xxviii (1861), from W. 
M. Howland, March 4, 1861. 

' It would be interesting to know how many conservative and Con- 
stitutional Union men belonged to the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
Amos A. Lawrence and his family connections, the Appletons and Dr. 
Samuel A. Green were Episcopalians, as were Robert C. Winthrop and 
George Ticknor. These names are not proof but merely suggestive as 
evidence of the assertion sometimes made that the conservatives in 
i860 were of the same social and financial position as the Tories of the 
Revolution. 



245] ^^-^ PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 49 

they are, be able to furnish employment? I firmly believe 
that in 90 days the doors of every mill would be closed. . . . 
No words of mine can portray the distress, the poverty, the 
crime and the despair.^ 

And when in February there was a shoemakers' strike in 
Lynn, Haverhill and Marblehead, the Post, the New York 
Herald, Democrats, manufacturers and strikers blamed the 
anti-slavery agitation. They argued that the South was 
boycotting the shoes; that with the consequent decrease in 
business wages had been lowered, with the result of the 
strike.^ 

Meanwhile the compromise policies which Holmes said 
swayed the Republicans were being advocated by Seward 
in the Senate and Adams in the House. On January 31, in 
his speech On the State of the Union, Adams conceded to 

^ Courier, Dec. 16, i860. 

2 Post, Feb. 21 and Mar. 9, i860. On February 24 a letter from a 
Boston merchant to an acquaintance in Concord, N. H., was published. 
It stated that the actual fluctuations of trade were probably to some 
€xtent the cause of the strike; but that the great cause was something 
else. " Our great market the South," it explained, " is for the present 
nearly lost to us. Our former large customers there now either de- 
cline to make any purchases, or buy very sparingly. The reason is, the 
state of feeling there, caused by recent events, toward the North. This 
agitation of the slavery question may be sport or profit to politicians, 
but I fear that unless it cease, so as to allow a change of feehng there 
soon, it will be death to us so far as our trade is concerned." 

Carroll D. Wright, however, in Strikes in Massachusetts 1830-1880, 
shows that there had been strikes nearly every year. Yet this particular 
one was very widespread. A big demonstration was planned for Feb- 
ruary 22; disturbances continued to occur until April. An overstocked 
market and an influx of farmers, masons, carpenters into shoemaking 
during winter months lowered the price of labor. Therefore the state- 
ment that slack southern trade was entirely responsible may be ques- 
tioned. Nevertheless, the fact that the trade was slack made good 
political capital, and the use of that fact is one incident in which mer- 
cantile interest shows itself openly condemning anti-slavery agitation 
and demanding remedy. 



50 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [246 

the South all the territory belonging to the United States 
in which slaves could be made useful, and was willing that 
slave-owners should have means of recovering runaway 
slaves in the spirit of the Constitution. He moreover ridi- 
culed South Carolina and Georgia for apprehending pos- 
sible infringement upon their rights, because, he asserted, 
no law could be availing which was contrary to the sympa- 
thies of the people/ Such concessions pleased the anti- 
Republican press ; ^ and in order to strengthen the support 
of such conciliatory statesmanship a Union meeting was 
held in Faneuil Hall on February 5." The enthusiasm for 
this amicable policy was so great that Amos A, Lawrence 
wrote his wife that he feared the slave states must go ; for 
the peace party was strengthening, and the Republicans 
would have an enemy at home to contend with.* The Re- 
publican press itself divided on the issue ; the Tribune called 
it " mistaken magnanimity " ° some preferred separation 
to such concessions, others approved. The Abolitionists, 
naturally, ridiculed the policy as " capping Vesuvius with a 
sheet of straw paper." ^ It is thus evident that the purpose 
of Adams was not widely understood, for dissatisfaction 
and distrust existed even though his support was general. 
There was, of course, no opportunity for any public expla- 

' Cong. Globe, 36 cong., 2 sess., app., pp. 126-127. 

^ Courier, Feb. 2, 1861 ; Sumner MSS, from J. M. Forbes, Jan. 16, 
1861. 

' Post, Feb. 6, 1861 ; Courier, Feb. 6, 1861. 

* Lawrence MSS, to Mrs. Lawrence, Feb. 10, 1861. 

* Feb. 26, 1861 ; also Sumner MSS, from F. W. Bird, Jan. 6, and from 
B. Coolidge, Jan. 18, 1861 (who even classed Adams with Benedict 
Arnold), and from William Claflin, president of the Massachusetts 
senate, Jan. 4, 1861. 

* Liberator, Jan. 18, 1861. 



247] -^^^ PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 51 

nation, nor was it like Adams to try to explain ^ that his 
purpose was to keep the representatives occupied in this 
discussion to bridge the interval before March 4 in peace 
and quiet. ^ But, fortunately for him, there was a sufficient 
number who perceived the intent to make it possible for 
him and his colleagues to persist in delay.^ 

Within the state those favoring conciliation worked for 
three things : the Crittenden compromise, the Virginia 
Peace Conference, and the repeal of the Personal Liberty 
Law. And those stressful days of compromise continued 
from the Union meeting in Faneuil Hall, on February 5, 
until the modification of the Personal Liberty Law, on 
March 25. The initial demonstration, for Union through 
compromise, adopted resolutions favoring the Crittenden 
propositions, and appointed a committee of " union savers " 

1 Adams to Andrew, Feb. 8, 1861 : " I presume that you have known 
me long enough to believe that neither praise nor blame has much 
effect in regulating my public action — My duty is performed." 

^ What that purpose was has been explained from time to time, for 
example: Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, Dec. 191 1, p. 
246; Adams, Life of Adams, pp. 130-134; Adams, Life of Dana, vol. ii, 
p. 253; Schouler, History of Massachusetts, vol. i, p. 5. But the most 
satisfactory statement is in the recent Autobiography of C. F. Adams, 
p. 72- 

3 Sumner MSS, Jan. 18, 1861. Charles E. Norton wrote Sumner that 
Longfellow, Lowell and George W, Curtis were satisfied and believed 
in the policy to gain time. He also said : " No one here is for com- 
promise." Similarly Boutwell, Reminiscences, vol. i, p. 271. Adams 
was, however, so little understood that he was not received by the 
people of substantial position until after his return from his post in 
England, when his eminent services demanded recognition. Even then 
Sumner did not forgive him for his position in 1861, which broke the 
friendship between Adams and Sumner. And in consequence the Sum- 
ner faction did not welcome the distinguished minister on his return. 
This is evident from a letter of Edward L. Pierce to Sumner on July 
24, 1868; he wrote: "The Adams reception has taken place. Of course 
I did not go. Few men who are active and of account were there. The 
hall was only half full." — {Sumner MSS) 



52 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [248 

to take their resolutions to Washington.^ Within the next 
few days petitions were widely circulated and won many 
signatures, with the result that on February 12 Crittenden 
presented to the Senate a petition favoring his measures 
signed by 22,313 citizens of Massachusetts. - 

The strength of these " union-savers " and the advice of 
Charles Francis Adams caused Andrew to weaken in his 
opposition to sending commissioners to the Peace Confer- 
ence. This yielding on Andrew's part was against the ad- 
vice of his radical friends, Sumner and the Bird Club,^ 
who said to stand firm. But Adams had written Andrew, 
January 28, " I am a little afraid that absence would con- 
firm the charge of indifference which is much used against 
us"; he also expressed the fear that if no authorized rep- 

' Courier, Feb. 7, 1861 ; Schouler, Massachtisetts in the Civil War, vol. 
i, p. 43. The committee named were : Edward Everett, Robert C. Win- 
throp, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, E. S. Toby, Amos A. Lawrence, all 
of the Constitutional Union party of i860. 

* Cong. Globe, 36 cong., 2 sess., p. 862. It was said that many of the 
signatures were fraudulent. The Sumner MSS, February 13-21, had 
several letters to this effect. There was one from John A. Andrew 
passing on J. M. Forbes' report of a rascal who boasted of signing the 
petition fourteen times. Also, M. P. Kennard, an excellent citizen and 
business man, wrote from Boston : " The petition was placed in the 
lobby of our post office, under the charge of a crier, who saluted 
everyone who passed with, ' Sign this petition ?' — and it was thought- 
lessly signed by men and boys, native and foreign." Sumner, Works, 
vol. V, p. 477. The Advertiser, February 23, 1861, also said the signers 
were uninformed as to the nature of the scheme; similarly, Springfield 
Republican, Jan. 28, 1861. It will be noted that this is all partisan tes- 
timony, yet it is so universal as to merit notice. On the other hand, it 
must be said that hope of solution through compromise undoubtedly 
appealed to the people. This Rhodes has conclusively shown, History 
of the United States, vol. iii, p. 261, note 2. 

' The Bird Club was a group of men who dined together Saturdays 
at two; they were not an organized body, but a group of congenial 
men, anti-slavery in sympathy, who talked things over. Cf. infra, ap- 
pendix ii, p. 207, note 5. 



249] "^^^ PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 53 

resentative should come, there would be " a volunteer rep- 
resentation." ^ Therefore, when resolutions approving the 
Crittenden plan were about to be introduced into the state 
senate, Andrew asked Dr. Robert T. Davis to rush through 
the legislature a resolution which should authorize the gov- 
ernor to appoint commissioners to the proposed Peace Con- 
ference." In defense of this action Andrew wrote F. W. 
Bird : " It is of much less importance what is done, than 
it is that the thing done should be rightly directed in its 
manner, and should be under the right auspices." ^ The 
commissioners were authorized and appointed February 5. 
On February 8 the house resolved " that Massachusetts is 
unalterably opposed to incorporating into the constitution 
of the United States the proposition known as the Critten- 
den Compromise," and " that our commissioners at Wash- 
ington are hereby instructed to use every effort to prevent 
the adoption of the Crittenden Compromise, or any similar 
proposition by the Convention now in session in Wash- 
ington." * 

Naturally any conced$ion was loudly attacked by the 
radical anti-slavery men and Abolitionists. Garrison voiced 
their sentiments when he said : 

Personal integrity and straightforward regard for the right 
can allow no temptation to make them swerve a hair's breadth 

^ William Claflin wrote Sumner, Feb. 7, 1861 : " When it was certain 
that our northern border states were going in, I could not see how we 
were to stay out. The middle states would be strengthened by sending 
a firm delegation from Massachusetts." 

* Acts and Resolves, 1861, chap, vii, p. 537. The commissioners were: 
Hon. John Z. Goodrich, Hon. Charles Allen, Hon. George S. Boutwell, 
Hon. Francis B. Crowninshield, Theophilus P. Chandler, John M. 
Forbes, Richard P. Waters. 

* Pearson, Life of Andrew, vol. i, pp. 155-156. 

* Mass. House Leg. Doc., i86f, no. 62,. 



54 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [250 

from the line of duty ; for they are of more consequence than 
all the compacts and constitutions ever made. Disregardful 
of this, the doctrine that " the end justifies the means," or that 
" we cannot always do what seems absolutely best," becomes 
the doctrine of devils.^ 

Nevertheless even Sumner made a concession. He wrote 
to Dr. Howe, January 17, 1861 : 

I do not speak, for such a speech as I should make would 
be seized by the conservative press, and be made the apology 
for the conduct of the slave states. To a member of the house 
who inquired what " concession " I was willing to make, I 
said, " There is one : I will consent to be silent yet a little 
longer." ' 

In general, however, there was a willingness to confer. It 
was even hoped that the process of electing and holding a 
convention and discussing the matters at issue might help 
to inform the people, to remove misunderstandings, and to 
smooth the way to lasting peace between the sections.^ At 
any rate a " freer interchange of ideas from different parts 
of the union would exercise a beneficial influence." ^ But the 
amendment before Congress was quite different; for if the 
constitutional amendment could empower Congress to con- 
sider slaves property south of Missouri, it might con- 
sider them such north of 36° 30',^ which would be 

^ Liberator, March 8, 1861. Also Worcester Spy, Jan. 30, 1861 : 
" Nothing can secure peace that does not put an end to slavery propa- 
gandism." 

* Pierce, Life of Sumner, vol. iv, p. 9. 

' This particular sentiment is from the Springfield Republican, Feb. 
16, 1861. 

* Courier, Feb. 21, 1861. Also view expressed in Forbes' report to 
Andrew, Forbes, Reminiscences, vol. ii, p. 95. 

* Springfield Republican, Jan. 28, 1861 ; Worcester Spy, Jan. 30, 1861 ; 
Advertiser, Jan. 18, 1861. 



251] THE PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 55 

the very thing that Massachusetts had just voted should 
not be done, namely, that slavery should not be extended to 
the territories. A conference, however, would serve a pur- 
pose : through it time could be gained until Lincoln could 
put forth his policy/ 

The third disputed point, namely, the repeal of the Per- 
sonal Liberty Law,' concerned Massachusetts more directly. 
This law had been a source of contention from the time it 
was passed in 1855.^ Its purpose was to protect free 
negroes from being put into bondage under cover of the 
Fugitive Slave Law; its effect, its opponents said, was to 
nullify that law.* Moreover, since the Personal Liberty 
Law was a particular grievance to the South,^ the non- 
Republican elements of Massachusetts were active for its 
repeal. Already Governor Banks had expressed a conserv- 
ative position ; in his valedictory he said : 

It is not my purpose to defend the constitutionality of the 

1 Forbes, Letters and Recollections, vol. i, p. 198, Reminiscences, vol. 
ii, pp. loi, 102, "We killed three weeks"; also Worcester Spy, Feb. 28, 
and Courier, Feb. 21, 1861. 

* Called by opponents " An act to prevent the authorities of the 
United States from executing the Fugitive Slave Law within the terri- 
tory of Massachusetts." Courier, Jan. 14, i860. 

^ General Statutes of Massachusetts, i860, ch. cxliv, esp. § 19. Pear- 
son, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 79-90, gives a full and interesting account of 
how John A. Andrew came into prominence in the legislature through 
his able defence of this law. 

* Courier, January 14 and February 2, i860; Post, January 17, i860. 

^ Life and Letters of George Ticknor, vol. ii, p. 430: "This is the 
main, substantial ground of this complaint. But not the only or chief 
ground." And the Worcester Spy, October i, i860: 

" Reporter — What do you intend doing in the case of Lincoln's 
election ? 
Mr. Toombs of Georgia — Resist him. 
Reporter — Without waiting for an overt act? 
Mr. Toombs — We have overt act enough already; the personal- 
liberty bills are sufficient." 



^6 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [252 

Fugitive-slave Act. The omission of a provision for jury 
trial, however harsh and cruel, cannot in any event be sup- 
plied by state legislation. While I am constrained to doubt the 
right of this state to enact such laws, I do not admit that, in 
any just sense, it is a violation of the national compact. It 
is only when unconstitutional legislation is enforced by execu- 
tive authority, that it assumes that character, and no such 
result has occurred in this State ... I cannot but regard the 
maintenance of a statute [such as the Personal Liberty Law J, 
although it may be within the extreme limits of constitutional 
power, which is so unnecessary to the public service and so 
detrimental to the public peace, as an inexcusable public wrong. 
I hope, by common consent, it may be removed from the 
statute-book, and such guaranties as individual freedom de- 
mands be sought in new legislation.^ 

Such was, also, the desire of the Constitutional Union 
group : Edward Everett, Benjamin R. Curtis, George Tick- 
nor, Amos A. Lawrence, and several others, met at the 
house of William Appleton and appointed a committee, who 
presented to the people of Massachusetts an address which 
demanded conciliation.^ 

* Senate Documents, 1861, no. i, pp. 29, 31. 

» Winthrop MSS, to Judge Clifford, December 3, i860. The signers 
of this address were: Lemuel Shaw (recent chief justice of Massachu- 
setts Supreme Court), H. J. Gardner (governor of Massachusetts 
under the American party), B. R. Curtis, George Ticknor and Levi 
Lincoln (Constitutional Union group of i860), Jared Sparks, The- 
ophilus Parsons (Professor of Law at Harvard), George Peabody 
(merchant), J. G. Abbott (Democrat), also George Ashmun (Whig 
1850, Republican i860). They were characterized by a Sumner corres- 
pondent as "either old Whigs or Democrats or those who have joined 
the Republican ranks at the eleventh hour, out of love, it may be, for 
the loaves and fishes. ... I believe these men, if they can succeed in 
revolutionizing the states with regard to the Fugitive Slave Act, will be 
equally as ready to dissipate you on the first opportunity as they are 
now to repeal the Personal Liberty Law." From O. W. Allen, Decem- 
ber 19, i860. Similarly from William Claflin, president of the Massa- 



253] '^^^ PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 57 

But such was not the position of Governor Andrew; in 
his inaugural he had taken another stand. He argiied : 

There can be no doubt that the first and most sacred duty of 
government is to protect the lives and liberties of subjects. I 
believe that every person who is prima facie free, being in 
possession of his liberty and claiming title thereto ; that every 
parent being in possession of his child; or guardian having 
custody of his minor ward, has a right to a judicial vindica- 
tion of his rights in that regard, whenever and wherever they 
are practically drawn in question. And I do not think that a 
certificate issued to authorize a person from California to 
seize and carry away, as and for his fugitive apprentice, the 
child of a white inhabitant of Massachusetts, . . . can bar the 
right of such a child or parent to a determination by a com- 
petent tribunal, of the right of the child to be retained in this 
community. . . . So, too, I deny that a certificate so issued 
to a person from Massachusetts, authorizing him to seize and 
carry away, as and for his fugitive apprentice, the slave of an 
inhabitant of Georgia, . . . can bar the right of such master 
to determine by a competent tribunal, of his right to retain 
his slave under the local law of Georgia. . . . And the right 
of a person to reclaim an alleged fugitive from his service 
must always be subordinate to the original, prior, indefeasible 
right of every freeman to his liberty, — to its preservation, to 
its instant and constant assertion, and to all the defences of 
it which pertain to the institutions of Common Law. . . . 
It is a naked question of right between the Commonwealth 
and its subjects. . . . Supposing, however, that our legisla- 
tion in this behalf is founded in mistake, the Legislature will 
only have endeavored to perform this duty toward the citizen, 
whom they are bound to shield from unlawful harm. The 

chusetts senate, February 7, 1861. . John Murray Forbes also com- 
mented : " The good old gentlemen who represent as they think the 
utter respectability of Massachusetts have made this manifesto on the 
personal liberty bills on which this whole argument evidently turns on 
expediency." December 22, i860. 



^8 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [254 

power to obtain the judgment of the Court affords ample 
redress to all claimants.^ 

It was against this position of Andrew that remonstrance 
was made- Supporters of Andrew, on the other hand, 
maintained that the views of the law held by the Southerners 
were incorrect; and that therefore to repeal the law in com- 
pliance with their demands would be improper concession.^ 
The Republican press divided. Many argued that it would 
be better that the law in question should be removed from 
the statute book by a simple repeal, and that the state should 
not seek to qualify and explain that which was subject to 
such misconstruction.^ The Abolitionists, of course, de- 
clared that this was saying peace where there was no peace, 
putting new wine into old bottles, and serving two masters.* 
But very many Republicans believed that if the laws were 
made the occasion or the pretense for disturbing friendly 
relations between the sections, and if they were incapable 
of substantial good, they ought to be repealed ; ^ and finally 
Andrew gave up his finn stand. He saw, also, that the 
Hunkers were trying to use the laws to split the Republican 

^ Senate Documents, 1861, no. ii, pp. 32-35. 

^ Worcester Spy, January 8, 1861 ; and the Advertiser, November 19, 
i860, said the governor of Georgia quoted as grievances sections of our 
law which had been repealed, and quoted as a New York law a bill 
which had never been passed. 

^Advertiser, Feb. 22 and Mar. 28, 1861 ; Springfield Republican, Nov. 
24, i860; E. Littell in the Advertiser suggested the necessity of repeal 
as a simple tribute to the Union men in Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, 
and Tennessee. Sumner MSS, from E. Littell, Feb. 25, 1861. 

* Clark, Secession, Concession, or Self -Possession (pam.), p. 27. 

* Thomas, Suggestions upon the Personal Liberty Law (pam.), pp. 13, 
14; also Advertiser, Feb. 22, 1861. Forbes, Letters {Supplementary), 
vol. i, p. 23s, to Charles F. Adams, Jan. 20, 1861 : " If repeal of Per- 
sonal Liberty Laws will conciliate Maryland so that she will stay with 
the North and defend the capital, it may be well to attempt it." 



255] -^-^^ PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 59 

party ; ^ therefore he aided the committee on federal rela- 
tions to discover a course upon which both elements could 
unite.^ In the end the following enactment was made 
which practically annulled the laws : 

Nothing contained in the statutes of the Commonwealth shall 
be construed to authorize the taking of any person out of the 
custody of the United States marshal, or his deputy, holding 
him by legal and sufficient process, issued by any court or 
magistrate of competent jurisdiction, provided, hozvever, that 
this shall not affect the authority of the supreme judicial court, 
or the justices, in accordance with the provisions of the con- 
stitution of the United States, and of this Commonwealth, to 
investigate and determine upon the validity and legal eft'ect of 
any process which may be relied on to defeat the writ, or any 
other matters properly arising.^ 

Thus although there was some opposition to compromise 
measures, there was generally a " magnanimous " sentiment 
which was willing to listen to plans of conciliation.* The 

1 Cf. supra, p. 50. 

* The remonstrance sent by the meeting at the Appleton house was 
referred to this committee on federal relations about fugitive slaves, 
etc. Pearson, Life of Andrew, vol. i, pp. 165-166 and note. 

' Laws and Resolves, 1861, ch. xci, § 3, pp. 398-399 (March 25, 1861). 
Criticism still continued thus : " The Personal Liberty Laws have been 
modified to be of no effect. It would have been better to have re- 
pealed them to prevent misapprehension." — Advertiser, Mar. 28, 1861. 

* The Advertiser quoted the following defense: "If we have to go 
to battle, will it not have been well for us to be able to say that we 
acted magnanimously, and did all that was possible for conciliation?" 
Jan. 30, 1861. 

Holmes' lines, from " Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caro- 
Hna," published in the Atlantic (May, 1861), vol. vii, p. 613, were evi- 
dently prompted by the same spirit : 

" You were always too ready to fire at a touch ; 
But we said, ' She is hasty, — she does not mean much.' 
We have scowled, when you uttered some turbulent threat; 
But Friendship still whispered, 'Forgive and forget!'" 



6o POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [256 

conciliatory spirit, however, was supplemented by financial 
interests : a quarrel with the South was disturbing to busi- 
ness, therefore compromise! ^ Some, on the other hand, 
thought the financial situation would show the Southerners 
their folly: the Advertiser, with its finger on the financial 
pulse, said, " There is ... a strong impression in stock 
circles in Wall Street that the political crisis is to end within 
a short time "; - and even so late as March 20 opinion ap- 
peared to be hopeful of continued peace. Moreover the 
same optimism which in November had asserted that secession 
was merely a threat now held the present state of affairs 
to be but temporary. The antislavery Spy, for example, 
prophesied that the tempest of unreasonable passion w^ould 
spend its force and subside, for it held that Jefferson Davis 
and others had " intended only a political game, which was 
to result in destroying the Republican party, and establish- 
ing themselves at the head of a party which w'ould control 
the government ".^ Consequently when Maryland and Dela- 
ware were saved to the Union, the progress in secession 
was considered to have reached its high water mark, from 
which it must recede from then on."* On the other hand the 
pro-slavery Courier said that the states would resume their 
places in the Union if encouraged to do so by the action of 

1 Cf. su(>ra, pp. 47-49- 

* Advertiser, Jan. 19, 1861. 

' January 12, 1861. It was, however, acknowledged by some to be a 
sclieme of long standing brought forward at the opportune time — the 
change of administration. And the Springfield Rc{>ublica>i, January 8, 
1861, said: "The movements for the extension of slavery have come 
from politicians, being designed to retain the control of the general 
government." Similarly the Advertiser, Dec. 18, the Courier, Dec. 3, 
the Springfield Republican, Dtc. 15, i860, and Spy, Jan. 16, 1861. 

* Springfield Republican, June 19, 1861 : " Breezes may blow and there 
may be a great tumult in the waters, but the tide will be running out 
all the time." 



257] '^^^^ PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 5i 

the North. ^ Such confidence from opposing parties would 
naturally encourage compromise. 

Political leaders, however, were not deceived. Andrew's 
visit to Washington in December had convinced him of the 
seriousness of the situation; his inaugural showed a con- 
sciousness of possible imminent war. At the end he said : 
^' The people of Massachusetts, confiding in the patriotism 
of their brethren in other States, accept this issue, and 
respond, in the words of Jackson, The Federal Union, it 
must he preserved! " " In this address, he also made a point 
of military preparation : he maintained the advisability of 
placing the militia on a footing of activity, that the state 
might be ready without delay to contribute her share of 
force at any exigency of public danger, for such prepared- 
ness alone could in the long run avert the creation of stand- 
ing armies.^ This statement, however, caused no particular 
comment, because the need of militar}' preparation was not 
recognized by the people, and because the statement was 
sufficiently judicious in phrasing to avoid attracting atten- 
tion. Yet Andrew was awake to the ultimate possibilities 
and exigencies : in fact, on his inauguration day, he had re- 
ceived a letter from Adams warning him of danger to the 
Federal Capital, and advising that state legislatures should 
make military preparations at once and quietly- 

These instructions were carried out immediately. Mes- 
sengers were sent to the governors of the New England 
states urging them to prepare for a coming crisis; and on 
January i6 William Schouler, adjutant-general, was di- 
rected (by Andrew) to issue General Order No. 4, which 
opened as follows : " Events which have recently occurred, 

» March 28, 1861. 

^ Senate Documents, 1861, no. 2, p. 46. 

* Ibid., p. 9. 



62 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [258 

and are now in progress, require that Massachusetts should 
be at all times ready to furnish her quota upon any requisi- 
tion of the President of the United States, to aid in the 
maintenance of the laws and the peace of the Union." The 
order provided for correcting the rolls of the militia com- 
panies and filling the vacancies " by men ready for any pub- 
lic exigency which may arise." ^ 

Although the order was a part of the governor's policy 
of preparation for a coming emergency, it was in answer to 
the report which the adjutant-general had made to Governor 
Banks on December 31, which asked for such authority.^ 
Banks had retired from office four days after the report was 
printed. This order, therefore, appeared in the light of 
unfinished business, and, as such, attracted less attention 
than it otherwise might have done. 

Nevertheless the partisan press commended and con- 
demned. The Advertiser was satisfied that the necessities 
of the case could be met without bringing Massachusetts 
forward obtrusively or offensively; the Courier, on the other 
hand, claimed that citizen soldiery were entitled to know what 
were the exigencies and objects of such extraordinary pro- 
ceedings.^ In the meantime the new legislature, on Janu- 
ary II, referred to its committee on federal relations a reso- 
lution to the effect that the universal sentiment of the people 
of Massachusetts was " that the President should enforce 
the execution of the laws of the United States, defend the 
Union, protect national property " ; and thereafter followed 
a series of military resolutions and acts which were part of 
the daily business until the close of the session, April 11. 

^ The order is printed in full in Schouler, History of Massachusetts 
in the Civil War, vol. i, p. 21. 

' Ibid., pp. 18, 19. 

' January 18, 1861. The Post was silent on this subject until after 
the presidential inaugfuration. 



259] -^^^ PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 63 

Indeed, so swift were the preparations that by January 23 
the governor informed the house that Colonel Jones ten- 
dered the Sixth regiment for immediate service, if required. 

Upon this there appeared numerous protests from all 
parties, from administration as well as from anti-adminis- 
tration papers. The Springfield Republican- published a 
long article entitled, "Arming the North against the South," 
which protested against inflaming the popular mind and 
distracting the popular attention from the ordinary pursuits 
of private life; it did not believe there was anything in pres- 
ent circumstances, or future probabilities, to justify exasper- 
ating the South needlessly by putting the New England 
states on a war footing.^ The Courier declared : "All this 
is anti-republican, anti-democratic, — in fact, mere despotism, 
and an entire departure from the principles, spirit and usage 
of our free institutions." ^ 

The special point of attack was a bill rescinding the act of 
1858 which had reduced both the number of companies in 
the militia and the number of men in each company. In 
other words there was protest because of the traditional 
abhorrence for a large and powerful militia, or anything 
suggestive of a standing army. The criticism of the Adver- 
tiser, for example, was not directed against the improvement 
of the militia, but against the adoption of a measure which 
provided for a permanent increase in it. Yet whatever 
criticisms the Advertiser made on the method adopted, all 
its discussions of the militia were distinct from its discus- 
sions of coercion of the South; for instance, it answered 
Captain Manning of Salem, as follows : 

The truth is, Captain Manning makes the mistake ... in 
supposing that it is proposed to march an army to the con- 

^ January 24, 1861. 
* January 21, 1861. 



64 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [260 

quest of the South. . . . No one has the sHghtest reason to 
suppose that Mr. Lincoln will pursue any except a strictly 
defensive policy — holding the property of the government, de- 
fending it from attack, and collecting the revenue as is his 
duty to do.^ 

After January, however, the Advertiser was silent on the 
militia question. The Courier and Post said but little: the 
former criticized Order No. 7, which summoned the militia 
to hold itself in readiness for defense of the Federal Capital 
when the Peace Conference was in session in Washington; ^ 
&nd the Post, in March, said that by war and war alone 
could the Massachusetts politicians hope to maintain their 
party in power upon the basis of the Chicago platform.^ 
A letter published in the Post some two weeks later said that 
the Southern brethren had become alarmed after the John 
Brown episode and recent military preparations, and that 
they had withdrawn and desired to be let alone.* This and 
the comment of the Springfield Republican that the " Mont- 
gomery cabinet is reported to be laughing over what it con- 
siders the weak preparations for war at the North ",^ are 
the only newspaper evidence of any belief that military 
preparations in Massachusetts had anything to do wath the 
crisis. 

Thus on the whole it would appear that the opposition 
to military measures was due to a general failure to com- 
prehend the possible imminence of war. Even though 

1 Jan. 29, 1861, in answer to the protests of Captain Manning of the 
Salem Light Artillery. This was the only militia company of the state 
that protested against the new measures. Pearson, Life of Aiuirew, 
vol. i, p. 147 and note 2. 

» Feb. 8, 1861. 

' Post, March 14, 1861. 

* Post, March 27, 1861. 

° April 17, 1861. 



26 1 ] THE PERIOD OF THE SECESSIONS 65 

threats against Washington were noted in the press/ and 
even though the Peace Conference failed, nevertheless the 
Springfield Republican, as late as April 6, claimed to believe 
that although there might be " a new disunion flurry " yet 
there was possibility of peace." Reports of plans for the 
taking of Fort Pickens and Fort Sumter did not receive 
serious attention, for, it was argued, any rash step on the 
part of South Carolina would put her in the wrong. In- 
deed, from the very beginning, it was held tO' be incredible 
that the Southern states could long persevere in a policy 
which would inflict untold commercial distress on their own 
community. And, after the inauguration of Lincoln, there 
was a sense of security, because of the belief in the firm 
yet peaceable policy of the new administration.^ It was 
indeed hard for a people to conceive of something of which 
they had no experience: civil war was new.* 

When the presidential election was over, then the ma- 
jority believed disunion improbable; when disunion became 

^ Worcester Spy, Jan. 15 and Feb. 2, 1861 ; Advertiser, Feb. 4, 1861. 

"Amos A. Lawrence wrote J. J. Crittenden, Dec. 29, i860: "Nine 
out of ten of our people would laugh if told that blood must be shed." 
Yet to the contrary on Dec. 29, i860, the Pilot had said : " It is im- 
possible not to see Civil War in the distance," and similarly Winthrop 
MSS, to J. P. Kennedy, Dec. 27, i860 ; and Francis J. Parker in the 
Boston Mercury quoted in the Worcester Spy, Dec. 11, i860. But these 
last were the minority, the one out of ten. 

* Springfield Republican, March 6, 1861 ; Courier, March 5, 1861 ; Post, 
March 5 and 16, 1861. Yet Warrington now (as the Pilot and Win- 
throp in December, i860) wrote : " It is more evident every day that 
there is an irrepressible conflict which will compel a separation even- 
tually." — Springfield Republican, April 6, 1861. 

* Edward L. Pierce remarks that the correspondents of Sumner, 
whether for or against concession, were groping in darkness and un- 
certainty, " but none foresaw great armies facing each other." — Life of 
Sumner, vol. iv, p. 22. And C. F. Adams, Autobiography (pp. 69-70) : 
" But of the tremendous nature of that future, we then had no con- 
ception." 



66 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [262 

a fact, they believed it temporary. Naturally they were 
more or less willing to conciliate; conciliation was an Ameri- 
can political habit, and moreover, it was a generous policy. 
Yet above all else Union and the authority of the govern- 
ment must stand. They hoped that time would bring about 
a peaceable and satisfactory solution. 



CHAPTER III 

The Defense of the Union 

With the fall of Sumter on April 12 the whole country 
was awakened. Massachusetts, in particular, no longer 
left adjustment to time; within a week five Massachusetts 
regiments started South. ^ Boston banks desired to increase 
the resources of the state and aid the preparations of the 
North; they, therefore, offered to loan money to the gov- 
ernor without security.^ In truth 

the guns of South Carolina battered down a great deal more 
than the walls of the forts, — party divisions and prejudices, 
personal interests, private or social differences all fell before 
them. The whole North was heartily united, and there was 
but one feeling and one will among them all. It was not that 
their passions were aroused . . . but their self-respect, their 
intelligent and conservative love of order, government, and 
law, all their instinctive love of liberty, and their sense of 

' The regiments were (in the order of their going), the 3d, 4th, 6th, 
8th, 5th. Major Cook's Light Artillery and the Third Battalion of 
Rifles went also. For the description of the departure of these regi- 
ments, see the adjutant-general's account: Schouler, History of Massa- 
chusetts, vol. i, ch. ii ; also Pearson, Life of Andrew, vol. i, ch. v, vi 
and viii ; Journal and Letters of Samuel G. Howe, vol. ii, p. 481; and 
the Boston Journal, April 18-22, i86r. 

2 Worcester Spy, April 18, 1861. — The Suffolk Bank offered Gov. An- 
drew $100,000 and the Secretary of the U. S. Treasury $100,000. The 
Webster Bank voted a loan of $50,000 to the state. Schouler, History 
of Massachusetts, vol. i, p. 53. — Boston banks offered $3,600,000 to the 
state. 

263] 67 



68 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [264 

responsibility for the safety of the blessings of freedom and 
popular government, were stirred to their very depth. ^ 

In the words of the press, " The traitorous blow struck 
at the flag roused the mercantile community as well as the 
rest " ; - and Amos A. Lawrence could write J. J. Critten- 
den on April 16: 

You have but a faint idea of the indignation which has seized 
the people since the defeat of Anderson. Every man wishes 
to be a volunteer. Business is suspended, political asperities 
have ceased and we all stand as one man for the government. 
. . . Our friends in Kentucky may rely on it the Government 
will be sustained.^ 

The next event, the firing on the Sixth regiment in Balti- 
more, blew the flame of indignation to white heat. This 
was a direct attack on fellow-citizens of Massachusetts. 
The mass of the people were thoroughly convinced that if 
things had come to this pass no quarter should be given.* 

* Norton, Letters, vol. i, p. 234, to A. H. Clough, May 27, 1861. Also 
the Worcester Spy, April 27, 1861 : "At once partisan differences were 
forgotten, partisan antagonism melted away, the hearts of the people 
united in a mighty cheer for the old star spangled banner and in a 
mighty purpose to maintain our republican institutions against the con- 
spirator that would destroy them." 

* Advertiser, April 17, 1861. Similarly the Post, June 18, said: "We 
may not make money for a season — perhaps we have thought too much 
of money in times past — but we are united ... it [war] is to be pur- 
sued until treason is rooted out and crushed." 

* Lawrence MSS, April 16, 1861. 

* A broadside of the time by Charles S. Smith expressed the popular 
sentiment while stirring it: 

" They have felt tlie Southerner's insults, they have borne his bitter 
taunts, 
They have listened without answer to his weak and childish vaunts; 
Till the Nation's flag was trampled on, they patiently forebore; 
But now they strike for Freedom — and the slain at Baltimore!" 



265] THE DEFENSE OF THE UNION 69 

And finally the last of the critics who blamed the admin- 
istration for the disaster, who said that sending reinforce- 
ments to Sumter threatened coercion, and who saw no suf- 
ficient cause for war, feeling that it would sacrifice lives 
and property and settle nothing,^ — those critics were 
silenced by the issuing of letters of marque and reprisal 
from Montgomery. The Courier then declared, " There 
will be no more talk about rights or wrongs; that day is 
happily past, for rights and wrongs have been swallowed 
up in the enormous wrong committed by the blood-stained 
traitors of Montgomery. Hereafter we act." " 

Of this united sentiment Sumner wrote: "I never be- 
lieved that the North would be practically divided when 
the conflict came; but I did not expect the ferocious unity 
and high-strung determination which are now witnessed." * 
And even the Abolitionists were quiet for a time. Garri- 
son wrote on April 23, " Let us all stand aside when the 
North i.s. rushing like a tornado in the right direction " * 
and Wendell Phillips, who on April 9 had spoken for dis- 
union, on the 2ist said: 

^ Courier, April 13 and 16, 1861 ; also Lunt, The Origin of the Late 
War, p. 451. 

' Courier, April 20, 1861. Also Ed^vard Everett, at the Academy of 
Music in New York, July 4, 1861, took the same stand: "They have 
broken the constitution by raising armies and issuing letters of marque." 
Works, vol. iv, p. 353. 

' Pierce, Life of Sumner, vol. iv, p. 37. 

* Garrison papers, April 23, 1861, to Oliver Johnson. On the 19th he 
had written Johnson : " Now that civil war has begun, and a whirl- 
wind of violence and excitement is to sweep through the country, 
every day increasing in intensity until its bloodiest culmination, it is 
for the abolitionists to ' stand still, and see the salvation of God,' 
rather than attempt to add anything to the general commotion. It is 
no time for minute criticism of Lincoln, Republicanism, or even the 
other parties, now that they are fusing for a death grapple with the 
Southern slave oligarchy; for they are instruments in the hands of 
God to carry forward and help achieve the great object of emancipa- 
tion, for which we have so long been striving." 



70 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [266 

The only mistake I have made was in supposing Massachu- 
setts wholly choked with cotton dust and cankered with gold. 
. . . The struggle now is, not of opinion, but of civilization. 
. . . The South opened with a cannon-shot, and Lincoln showed 
himself at the door. The war is not of aggi^ession, but of 
self-defence; and Washington becomes the Thermopylae of 
liberty and justice. Rather than surrender it, cover every foot 
of ground with a living man. Guard it with a million men, 
and empty our bank-vaults to pay them. Proclaim that the 
North is under the stars and stripes, and no man is in chains.^ 

Thus, although he did not forget his cherished cause, he 
was now for the Union. 

The unanimity of sentiment in which all partisan dif- 
ferences were forgotten was shown in Union meetings 
held in Boston and Cambridge. Conservatives and Breck- 
inridge Democrats, all stood for the cause of Union; 
George S. Hillard of the Courier was one of the speakers at 
the Washington Elm meeting; and Benjamin F. Hallett, 
who had been a seceder at the Baltimore convention, fol- 
lowed Edward Everett at the Chester Square flag-raising. 
To this meeting Everett said : 

Fidelity to the Union blazes from its stars: allegiance to the 
Government under which we live is wrapped within its folds. 
We set up this standard, my friends, not as a matter of idle 
display, but as an expressive indication, that, in the migthy 
struggle which has been forced upon us, we are of one heart 
and of one mind — that the Government of the Country must 
be sustained. . . . We forget that we ever had been partisans ; 

* In Theodore Parker's Church, Boston, quoted in the Liberator, Apr. 
26, 1861. The New York Tribune, Aug. 20, 1862, quoted Phillips as 
saying : " Sumter changed the whole question." Elsewhere Abolition- 
ists explained that the earher disunion agitation of the Abolitionists 
was justified by their cause, while the move on the part of the South 
was condemned by its cause. 



267] ^^^ DEFENSE OF THE UNION yj 

we remember only that we are American and that our country 
is in peril.^ 

Nowhere was there any mention of slavery, except among 
the radical Abolitionists." Even Andrew, devotedly anti- 
slavery, submerged his cherished cause." In his address 
to the special session of the legislature. May 14, he said : 

This is no war of sections, — no war of North or South. It is 
waged to avenge no former wrongs, nor to propitiate ancient 
griefs or memories of conflict. It is the struggle of the People 
to vindicate their own rights, to retain and invigorate the in- 
stitutions of their fathers, — the majestic effort of a National 
Government to vindicate its power and execute its functions 
for the welfare and happiness of the whole, — and therefore 
while I do not forget, I will not name to-day that " subtle 
poison " which has lurked always in our national system.* 

The people generally, in all probability, as John Murray 
Forbes declared, " had no clear conception of the evils of 
slavery, nor were all aware that this inherited curse was at 
the bottom of the strife";^ but all did understand the at- 
tack on the Union and were stirred by it. It was undoubt- 
edly with truth, therefore, that the Springfield Repuhlico/n 
in August asserted that ninety-nine in every one hundred 
of the people of Massachusetts were in favor of Union 
and were loyal supporters of the government." 

How large a portion were really apart from the popular 

* Everett, Works, vol. iv, p. z^', and even the Post (Apr. 22, 1861) 
said : " Let every man's motto be, ' I am with my country and for 

MY COUNTRY UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES AND IN EVERY CONTINGENCY,' " 

- Cf. infra, ch. iv, p. 90. 

' Andrew got his cue from Washington. — Pearson, Life of Andrew, 
vol. i, p. 249. 

* Senate Documents, extra sess., 1861, no. 2, pp. 4-5. 

* Forbes, Letters and Recollections, vol. i, p. 202. 
« Aug. 30, 1861. 



72 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [268 

enthusiasm is hard to determine, for it was the safer or 
more comfortable policy for them to conceal their views. 
And now that the war is over and the judgment of history- 
defends the policy of the administration, the minority gen- 
erally prefer to forget their mistaken judgment. 

A few incidents of violence toward disloyalty are never- 
theless recorded. In Haverhill a certain Ambrose L. Kim- 
ball, editor and publisher of a journal of limited circulation 
called the Essex County Democrat, offended the loyal citi- 
zens by his persistent hostility to the government. He was 
taken from his house, tarred and feathered, and carried on 
a rail over into Bradford, where he was made to kneel and 
promise to print no more treason.^ Two similar incidents 
occurred in the little town of Wales : one Farrington was 
carried on a rail, and a certain Miller was ridden head to 
tail on a blind horse.^ Near Worcester, Mr. Bond of Boyls- 
ton gathered thirty friends in his defense against a threat- 
ened second visit by loyalist neighbors.^ A Mr. Curtis 
was compelled to nail a flag to his house.* There were also 

1 Courier and Worcester Spy, Aug. 21, 1861. (Newspaper offices 
were destroyed in Concord, N. H., and Bangor, Maine. Advertiser, 
Aug. 14, 1861.) 

' Springfield Republican, May 13, 1861. 

' Worcester Spy, Oct. 22, 1861. The Bonds were charged with firing 
a salute after the defeat at Bull Run. 

* Testimony of a son of Mr. Curtis, who now (1914) lives on the 
farm. A humorous story is told in South Hadley. A stranger who 
moved to the town lived by himself and received many letters. He 
was suspected of being in league with the rebels. In his absence 
neighbors found a heavy box in his wood-shed. They were convinced 
that arms and ammunition were being collected to send South. A day 
or two later a mob collected at the post-office and went to his house. 
Accusations and threats were so violent it was some time before he 
learned what they wanted. Then he opened his house, his letters and 
the box. Around the sitting-room were several chess-boards ; the 
correspondence concerned these games of chess. The box contained 
books. The mob dispersed. This incident was told by Miss Sophie 
Eastman, contemporary. 



269] THE DEFENSE OF THE UNION 73 

a few incidents of whole towns that were rebelHous; for 
example, Southwick, a town in Hampden County, refused 
by vote of 56 tO' 18 to appropriate $2000 for volunteers,^ 
and in Agawam the selectmen refused to call a town meet- 
ing. In the latter case a meeting was finally called by a 
justice of the peace and money was appropriated for volun- 
teers and the support of their families.^ But when these 
cases are enumerated we have exhausted the records. It 
would seem therefore that in the early months of the war 
outspoken opponents of the administration and open sym- 
pathizers with rebellion were few and far between.^ 

But, after four or five months, ardor and enthusiasm 
cooled and it was possible to mention compromise. For 
various reasons there were numerous not unqualified sup- 
porters of the war.* Some, undoubtedly, like the farmers 
of Maine, felt the whole affair was no concern of theirs; 
there were besides a number who conscientiously believed 
in state rights, the most extreme holding that the govern- 
ment had nO' right to exercise coercion under any circum- 
stances. J. P. Blanchard, pamphleteer for this faction, 
argued : 

I ■ ■' • ■'■ - ■•' 

Holding slaves as property is a great and oppressive wrong, 

but, there being no power in the Constitution to remedy that 

wrong, it is reserved to the States who act in the case for 

^ Springfield Republican, May 14, 1861. 
"" Ibid., May 11, 1861. 

* Hawthorne could be counted among them. He wrote, May 26: "I 
must say that I rejoice that the old Union is smashed. We never 
were one people, and never really had a country since the Constitution 
was formed." Bridge, Personal Recollections of Hawthorne, p. 169. 

* E. g., the Pilot, Aug. 16, 1861 : " We would bear the sword and the 
olive branch together. We should keep our armies in the field and our 
powder dry, but also keep our hearts open to rational terms of com- 
promise." 



74 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [270 

themselves; and, in like manner, there being no provision 
in the Conr.titution either to permit or prohibit secession, it 
is reserved power to the States, the execution of which, right 
or wrong, each state must decide for itself. The war, there- 
fore, to prevent or recover this secession by force, is not only 
ineffectual, and for a wrong purpose, but a gross usurpation 
of ungranted power. '^ 

There were moreover a great many neutrals. They were 
loyal to the Union because of their reverence for the Con- 
stitution, but their hatred for the Abolitionists was so strong 
that they were loath even to join themselves to the Republi- 
cans, for they felt that the war had resulted in a measure 
from Abolitionist agitation and that the Republicans were 
aiding these reformers by prosecuting the war. At the 
same time, there were extreme Abolitionists who were not 
eager to return to a union with slave holders." And finally 
there were pro-slavery sympathizers who felt that, though 
the war was nominally for the Union, slavery was involved, 
and who would not fight to abolish slavery. 

Some of the pro-slavery faction were directly interested 
financially in the system : the South, in fact, was the great 
market for various manufactured products of New Eng- 
land ; ^ the shoe factories around Danvers, for example, 
made shoes for the slaves in the South; furthennore mer- 
chants or those building railroads, had taken mortgages on 

^ Blanchard, The War of Secession (pam.), p. 9. 

* For example, a strong-minded woman coming out of Music Hall on 
a day when news of Union triumph had come, is reported to have 
"groaned out": "If things are going on in this way, we shall have 
the old government back again and all the Slave States, just as they 
were before, and what will become of emancipation?" Courier, March 
3 and May 6, 1862. 

2 Cf. supra, ch. ii. 



271] THE DEFENSE OF THE UNION 75 

the slaves and sometimes had become slave owners.^ There 
were, also, still other pro-slavery sympathizers who did not 
condemn the institution of slavery itself; for in 1861 the 
children of those who remembered the emancipated family 
servants with affection, still cherished the traditions of 
slavery at its best, and therefore, sympathized with the 
Southerner's attitude toward it." 

In the summer of 1861, however, these lukewarm factions 
were ineffective, enthusiasm for Union was paramount and 
any mention of compromise only called forth expressions 
of Union sentiment and strengthened the support of the 
war. The most of the public believed, as did Lowell, that 
conciliation after reverses would " put the party of law and 
loyalty in the wrong and would mean disunion " ; they 
believed, moreover, that discussion would give the rebels 
time to consolidate their organization.^ And there were 
those who scorned compromise because they were confident 
of easy victory, realizing neither the determination nor the 
resources of the South.* But in the last analysis the senti- 

^ 'Reminiscence of Frank B. Sanborn. Mr. Sanborn said he knew of 
merchants who, in payment for goods, had taken mortgages on planta- 
tions and slaves, and consequently wanted difficulties patched up. He, 
however, declined to give the names. 

^ Slaves had been held in Massachusetts until 1783, when the court 
decided that the phrase of the Constitution declaring " all men are 
born free and equal" annulled the master's right to the labor of his 
slave. Jeremiah Page, of Danvers, was the last slave-owner of Massa- 
chusetts, The late Miss Ann Page described the attitude of her father 
and other people of her acquaintance. Her descriptions contributed 
largely to the above conclusions. 

'Lowell, "Pickens and Stealin's RebelHon," Atlantic (June, 1861), 
vol. vii, p. 760. 

* This confidence lasted into 1862. Worcester Spy, Feb. 13 and Nov. 
12, 1862; the Post, May 8, 1862, "The rebellion is crumbhng"; the 
Springfield Republican, July 15, 1861, Feb. 2, 8, 27, Aug. 20 and May 
la, i86a; with the fall of Norfolk it said: "The backbone of the re- 



^6 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [272 

ment of all parties was the same, " The Union must be 
preserved." 

i\t the same time it was emphatically declared that aboli- 
tion was not the purpose of the war; that the duty of the 
government was to suppress rebellion and " let slavery take 
care of itself "; ^ for the great purpose of the war was to 
rescue the government from destruction and uphold the • 
Constitution and the Union. The preservation of this 
Union was regarded as a sacred trust inherited from the 
fathers, and for its preservation the people were responsible 
" to humanity and to Almighty God " ; - indeed both Demo- 
crats and Republicans believed confidently that unless the 
rebellion were shaken from centre tO' circumference the 
great experiment of democratic institutions would prove a 
failure. The existence of the nation was threatened by con- 
spirators who would seek to destroy it because they could 
not control it.^ It was therefore the duty of the men of 

bellion is broken, and though there may be some fighting yet, the re- 
maining part of the subjugation of the enemy will be comparatively 
easy." Also Amos A. Lawrence (MSS) assured his sister (Mrs. Ar- 
nold), on May 27, 1861 : "The Union will be maintained and the 
' stars and stripes ' will wave over our whole seaboard before New 
Year's, and over the whole country before another New Year's after 
that. There is no more doubt about it than that the sun will rise." 

1 Springfield Republican, June 8, Nov. 13 and 15, 1861, Jan. 9, 1862; 
Courier, May 2, 1861 ; also Springfield Republican, May 23, 1862 : " We 
yield in our hatred of slavery to no man, but the destruction of slavery 
is not the object for which our armies were brought into the field." 

2 Benjamin F. Thomas in his Faneuil Hall speech, reported in the 
Worcester Spy, Sept. 10, 1866. Similarly, Edward Everett said in Rox- 
bury. May 8, 1861, the war "is for the very existence of the Government; 
it is a contest in which no good citizen can remain neutral." Works, 
vol. iv, p. 22/^. And in his Four th-of- July oration he said the great 
issues before the country were nothing less than " whether the work 
of our noble Fathers of the Revolution and Constitutional age shall 
perish or endure." — Post, July 4, 1861 ; Works, vol. iv, p. 405. 

* C. Hodge, England and America (pam.), p. 4; also Forbes, Letters 



273] -^^^ DEFENSE OF THE UNION yy 

the North to preserve it as an inspiration to all lovers of 
freedom, and a blessing to mankind/ 

To champion this cause of Union a big meeting was held 
in Faneuil Hall on September 9, 1861. Among the vice- 
presidents were George S. Boutwell, Robert C. Winthrop, 
Josiah G. Abbott; Republican, Constitutional Unionist and 
Democrat. Here it was asserted " no matter who carries 
the flag we follow the stars and stripes ", and it was de- 
clared that " no compromise shall lull us to repose." Robert 
C. Winthrop said : " We must act for the present. . . . Our 
misguided brethren of the South have left us no other 
alternative but to fight. Our capital must be defended. 
Our flag must be sustained, the authority of the govern- 
ment must be vindicated." ^ 

It was in this spirit that Benjamin F. Hallett (who had 
been of the seceders' convention in Baltimore) suggested 
that party action should be suspended until war was at an 
end. The simple issue, he said, 

is the overthrow or the support of the Government in this 
whole Union ; and while that is the issue, I am not for oppos- 
ing or obstructing any measure or policy of the administration 
honestly designed to carry on this war for its great end, viz. : 
the re-establishment of the supreme Government of the Union 

and Recollections, vol. ii, p. 74 : " The war is not the North against the 
South, but the people against the aristocracy " ; and later Henry Wil- 
son said, "American slavery must die that the nation may live." — "The 
Duty of the Hour," given before the Fraternity of Boston, Oct. 7, 1862. 

^ C. F. Adams in his farewell address said : " We are now the cham- 
pions of law and republican hberty " (pam., p. 8). The Springfield 
Republican, Nov. 30, 1861, claimed: "The putting down of this 
gigantic rebellion . . . settles the question touching the strength and 
weakness of a democratic government for all the nations of the 
Earth." Similarly, Guild in a pamphlet, War and Why it Is, p. 8, held 
that " the power of self-government is on trial, in our case, before the 
tribunal of the world." 

" Courier, Sept. 10, 1861 ; Worcester Spy, Sept. 10, 1861. 



76 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [274 

in all the States and Territories. Until that is done, or it is 
demonstrated that it cannot be done by force of arms, I belong 
to no party but the country. . . . A party nomination can do 
no good to the country and may do harm. . . . Let Massa- 
chusetts he a unit, in support of the Union, and let there he 
no division as to men in this election.^ 

Caleb Gushing also added his influence ; at Salisbury Beach, 
on September 17, he said : 

Whatever may have been our antecedents, there is no uncer- 
tainty as to the duty of every citizen of the United States. 
... In such a time as this to talk of political parties is not 
the thing. Party now is but the dust in the balance, the foam 
on the wave in comparison with Union and Liberty.^ 

To this same end the chairman of the state central com- 
mittee, Democratic, received the following communication: 

At a meeting of the state central committee and others, of the 
Constitutional Union party, held in Boston this day, the under- 
signed were appointed a committee to confer with the Demo- 
cratic and Republican parties, in reference to an abandonment 
of existing party organizations, and the calling of a People's 
Convention to nominate State officers.^ 

The Democratic convention, however, did not follow 
this advice. Hallett and Cushing were absent. Though 
Oliver Stevens moved that they should adjourn without 
making any nominations, the other faction, led by E. A. 
Alger, of Lowell, was stronger ; a full ticket was nominated, 
and Isaac Davis was named for governor. The convention 
had come together in response to the call to those " who 

^ Post, Sept. 14, 1861. 
' Advertiser, Sept. 19, 1861. 

* Post, Sept. 19, 1861. Report of the Constitutional Union meeting at 
the Parker House appeared in the Courier, Sept. 13, 1861. 



2753 ■^■^'^ DEFENSE OF THE UNION yg 

believe that the vigorous prosecution of the war should be 
accompanied by the most liberal proffers of i>eace," ^ and 
Judge Wells offered a resolution for calling a convention 
of one delegate from each congressional district in New 
England to suggest an amendment to the Federal Constitu- 
tion acceptable to the North and South, and which would 
furnish ample guarantee of protection to the rights of the 
South. The motion was laid on the table; instead the con- 
vention resolved that " the Federal Government must and 
shall be maintained," that " it becomes the imperative duty 
of every citizen to sustain the administration in a vigorous 
prosecution of the war as the only means of securing last- 
ing peace." It nevertheless challenged the national admin- 
istration " to guarantee the right of ever}^ state to regulate 
its domestic affairs in its own way, especially the freedom 
of the press, the right of personal liberty, the privilege of 
the writ of habeas corpus and trial by jury." It condemned, 
furthermore, the Republican party for keeping its party 
organization. - 

The call of the Republican convention sounded a very 
different note ; it was to those 

who are in favor of union for the support of the Government 
and for a vigorous prosecution of the war . . . who are deter- 
mined without reservation to support the constituted author- 
ities in all attempts to restore the sway of the Constitution and 
the Laws over every portion of the country, . . . for the pur- 
pose of testifying to all loyal men throughout the country their 
unfaltering and persistent purpose to maintain free principles 
and democratic institutions inherited from our fathers, and 
thus secure a peace — the only one substantial and permanent, 
based upon a successful vindication of the supremacy of con- 
stitutional law.^ 

' Post, Aug. 17, 1861. ^ Post, Sept. 19, 1861. 

' Advertiser, Sept. 28, 1861. 



8o POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [276 

The same determination for " permanent, safe and honor- 
able peace " through " the extinction of armed rebelHon " 
was embodied in the resolutions/ 

Yet another note was struck in the convention by Charles 
Sumner, who said : 

Rebel conspirators have set upon us, and now besiege the 
National Government. . . . Bridges are burned. Railways 
are disabled. Steamers and ships seized. . . . Commerce is 
hunted on the sea, and property, wherever it can be reached, 
ruthlessly robbed or destroyed. ... In the name of slavery, 
and nothing else, is all the crime, destruction and ravage per- 
petrated; and the work still proceeds. ... It is often said that 
the war will make an end of slavery. This is probable. But it 
is surer still that the overthrow of Slavery will mean an end 
of the war. . . . Two objects are before us. Union and Peace, 
each for the sake of the other, and both for the sake of the 
country; but without Emancipation how can we expect 
either ? ^ 

But the convention was not ready to follow any such doc- 
trines ; instead it voted down the resolution of James Free- 
man Clarke to " welcome any act under the war power 
which should declare all slaves within the lines of our 
armies free . . . compensating all loyal owmers." ^ Ob- 
viously the Republican party in Massachusetts was not yet 
ready to stand for emancipation even as a military measure ; 
in fact, the proposition was considered to be ill-timed and 
out of place.'* Instead of supporting a " crusade ", the 

» Advertiser, Oct. 2, 1861. 

' Advertiser, Oct. 2, 1861 ; Sumner, Works, vol. vi, pp. 1-29. 

' Advertiser, Oct. 2, 1861 ; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1861, p. 453. 

* Springfield Republican, Oct. 2, 1861 : " We could not but feel that 
Mr. Sumner's speech was ill-timed and out of place." Advertiser, Oct. 
4, 1861 : " Neither men nor money will be forthcoming for this war, if 
once the people are impressed with the belief that the abohtion of 



277] '^^^ DEFENSE OF THE UNION gi 

convention professed to recognize the demand that was 
being made for union of all votes in favor of sustaining 
the national administration. 

To that end the convention nominated Edward Dickin- 
son, a Bell-Everett man, for lieutenant-governor, and J. G. 
Abbott, a Democrat, for attorney-general. The secretary, 
when informing Dickinson of his nomination, characterized 
the convention as 

all the citizens of the commonwealth who are in favor of 
union for the support of the government, and for a vigorous 
prosecution of the war against wicked and unprovoked re- 
bellion, and who are determined in good faith ... to restore 
the sway of the Constitution and Laws in all portions of the 
country.^ 

But the plan failed. Dickinson and Abbott both declined, 
for they felt that they were being nominated by the Repub- 
lican convention ; in fact, Dickinson described the honor as 
" gracefully and unexpectedly tendered by a numerous con- 
vention composed of men of a political organization of 
which I am not a member." Later in his letter he said that 
the great mass of the people were ready to sustain the state 
administration and its policy if the committees of the polit- 
ical organizations had united in calling a People's conven- 
tion without distinction of party. He claimed that it was 
a time when all party organizations and platforms should 
sink into utter insignificance, and demanded that the na- 
tional administration and its policy be maintained until "the 

slavery and not the defence of the union is the object." Also Adams' 
Dana, vol. ii, p. 260: "He (Sumner) preaches a holy crusade. But we 
cannot justify war on the democratic institutions of the Southern 
States as an end and object. . . . The war must be to sustain the Con- 
stitution, jmd prevent the establishment of an independent nation in 
our limits." 

^ Advertiser, Oct. 17, 1861. 



82 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [278 

sway of the Constitution and Laws shall be restored to all 
portions of our country." Thus it is clear that, though 
professing Union sentiments, he was not willing to acknowl- 
edge the dissolution of his own party by accepting the 
nomination of the Republicans. His ideal of a union party 
could be content with nothing short of the complete aban- 
donment of the Republican organization; only that would 
satisfy either the Democratic or the Bell-Everett party.* 
Mr. Abbott did not think it necessary to give his reasons 
for declining, although he spoke of his nomination as being 
from those differing from him on political subjects. His 
claim to Union sentiment was in the form of a question : 
" How shall the government and the laws be sustained, 
established and maintained throughout the length and 
breadth of the land ?" 

Thus the plan for a union party failed." But at bottom 
there was no issue between the parties; they differed only 
upon incidentals. The Republicans stood for Union and 
uncompromising support of the administration, the Demo- 
crats demanded vigorous prosecution of the war accom- 
panied by the most liberal proffers of peace ; fundamentally 
their aim was the same — Union. The vote, however, 
showed a slight increase in proportion for Andrew over the 
vote of 1860.^ 

' This was indeed the contemporary interpretation : Journal quoted 
in Post editorial, Oct. 18, 1861. Similarly, Republican, Oct. 5, 1861. 

2 After Dickinson and Abbott declined, the Republican commented: 
" The Worcester convention, so far as it undertook to be in any sense 
a Union convention, was unquestionably a fizzle." Oct. 18, 1861. 

3 The vote. Andrew. Others. 

i860 104,527 65,007 

1861 65,261 32,062 

Andrew's proportion of the total in i860 was 62 per cent; his pro- 
portion in 1861 was 67 per cent. 



CHAPTER IV 

Emancipation 

From the preceding chapters it is evident that abolition 
was not the war-cry in Massachusetts in i860 and 1861. 
The purpose of this chapter is to show that emancipation 
was never regarded as the main end of the war by the 
majority in that state, and that the Abohtion movement 
was never universally supported; that although emancipa- 
tion satisfied the anti-slavery idealism and scruples of some 
and was a welcome by-product to many, yet it was ever a 
policy of expediency for the accomplishment of the great 
purpose — the preservation of the Union and the perpetua- 
tion of democracy. 

Since the early thirties idealists, reformers, and fanatics 
had championed the cause of freedom. They were few in 
number but great in courage; in 1831, for example, only 
nine persons in Massachusetts would agree to immediate 
emancipation; nevertheless the Liberator was established, 
and the Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society was founded 
the following year. In the forties a handful of people, a 
faction of the Abolitionists, the " Come-outers ", cham- 
pioned the cause of freedom, and attacked the church as the 
bulwark of American slavery: the women took their knit- 
ting to church to show their contempt for a religion that 
ignored the brotherhood of men by tolerating the enslave- 
ment of some. This clique, claiming that reason and con- 
science were above the clergy, whom they called dumb dogs 
(D.D.'s), and above the Scripture, which they considered 
279] 83 



84 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [280 

perverted by its interpretation in defense of slavery, was 
too extreme to gain many adherents. Another chque, in- 
cluding some who did not attack the religious order as a 
preliminary step to the freedom of the enslaved, did attack 
the Constitution because slaveholding politicians had con- 
strued it in favor of slavery. Yet these anti-political re- 
formers were also too extreme to become a numerous party. 
Thus the thorough-going Abolitionists who saw the church, 
the ministry, the Bible and the United States Constitution 
in the way of the abolition of slavery, and who thought all 
must be removed, were entirely too iconoclastic to win 
many followers. And even in the fifties, after their early 
iconoclasm had failed and their aggressiveness had become 
more familiar and their methods less noisy and more varied, 
the Abolitionists still remained few in number, and were 
marked in their communities as queer and made the victims 
of mild persecution. Examples of this are not wanting. In 
South Hadley, Charles Eastman's barn was a station of the 
underground railway, and the neighbors at one time showed 
their contempt for him by daubing " nigger Charlie " in 
black paint all over his newly-painted white fence. ^ Abo- 
litionist meetings, held in various places from time to time, 
were frequently occasions for disorderly conduct. In Old 
Hadley, for example, lads of the town threw sulphur on the 
stove and drove the meeting from the town hall; in West 
Farms, Westfield, pepper was put on the stove and the 
meeting was forced to adjourn to a farm-house nearby; 
and again in Westfield another meeting was broken up and 
the meeting place burned — whether set on fire purposely or 
by coals from the stove which had been overturned in the 
riot, is not known.* 

' This incident was one of several told by Miss Sophia Eastman. 
' Liberator, January 18, 1861. The Hadley incident was told by a 
contemporary, Mr. Levi Dickinson. 



28 1 ] EMANCIPATION ge 

Yet, in spite of these demonstrations against the Aboli- 
tionists, who were regarded as cranks and fanatics, the anti- 
slavery cause was growing. It was strengthened by the 
discussions and organizations of the Free-Soil party, or- 
ganized 1848, whose spirit was essentially different from 
that of the Abolitionists. While the latter were not a 
political party and would sacrifice anything, everything, 
even the Union itself, to be free from slavery, the Free- 
Soilers were a political organization who championed the 
cause of freedom in the territories. They worked by coali- 
tion and compromise and put anti-slavery men into promi- 
nent positions of power and leadership ^ until the Free-Soil 
party was finally merged into the bigger and less extreme 
organization, the Republican party. 

The platform of the new party was clearly not abolition- 
ist, and although it had some radical followers, the most 
of the extremists stood without and criticized. Yet, on the 
other hand, Andrew was so much too boldly anti-slavery in 
i860 that the vote for him was less than for Lincoln,* 
which is but an indication of the moderate temper of the 
majority and their antagonism to abolition. The radical 
group, in the winter of 1 860-1 861, as earlier, remained 
small in number. But that number, in the words of Schou- 
ler, were " powerful in eloquence, moral in character and 
cultivated in intellect";^ their policy was aggressive; they 
made no compromise, sought no office, gave no quarter. 

Their aggressive policy provoked hostile action from 
those ultra-conservative on the slavery issue; and three 
Abolitionist meetings, held in Boston in December, i860, 
and January, 1861, were the occasions of lawless demon- 
strations by their opponents. A meeting in Tremont Tem- 

^ Cf. introduction, supra. 

2 Cf. supra, p. 2Z, note i. 

* History of Massachusetts in the Civil War, vol. i, p. 44. 



86 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [282 

pie, on December 3, i860, the anniversary of John Brown's 
death, was invaded by a company of intolerant anti- Aboli- 
tionists, " men of respectability though not of distinction." ^ 
The Abolitionists and negroes were met to discuss the ques- 
tion, "How shall American slavery he abolished f" The in- 
vaders took possession of the meeting, elected their own 
leader chairman, and read resolutions which were adopted 
in the presence of the astonished regulars." The resolu- 
tions protested that 

the present perilous juncture in our political afifairs, in which 
our existence as a nation is imperilled, requires of every 
citizen who loves his country to come forward and express 
his sense of the value of the Union, alike important to the 
free labor of the North, the slave labor of the South, and to the 
interests of commerce, manufactures and agriculture of the 
world. 

The invaders also extended sympathy to Virginia and pro- 
tested against " allowing irresponsible individuals and polit- 
ical demagogues of every description to hold public meet- 
ings to disturb the peace and misrepresent us abroad." 

* John Murray Forbes called them " Broadcloth rowdies." Remin- 
iscences, vol. i, p. 174. Similarly Pearson, Life of Andrew, vol. i, p. 
131. From the New York Tribune (Dec. 7, i860) we learn that the 
mob in the afternoon was chiefly composed of merchants, traders with 
the South — "nearly all of whom have uncollected debts there and many 
of them mortgages on slaves. . . . The gentlemen sought a solace for 
their financial grievances by going up to Tremont Temple to trounce the 
handful of niggers." An evening meeting was held in a colored church 
in Joy Street. Robinson, Letter to the Tribune, December 7, names 
prominent participants in the mob: iRufus Choate, Jr., John Bell, B. F. 
Russell and Oliver Stevens of the bar ; Thomas L. Parkins, a broker ; Mr. 
Horton of the firm of Skinner & Co. (dry-goods) ; John C. Boyd, Wil- 
liam C. iRogers, T. J. Coolidge, Jr., William Aspinwall of the old Whig 
state committee, and Amos A. Lawrence. 

^Courier, Dec. 4, i860; Worcester Spy, Dec. 4, i860; New York 
Tribune, Dec. 5, Robinson's Letter. 



283] EMANCIPATION 87 

The resolutions speak for themselves : they are the ex- 
pression of both mercantile interest and the sincere fear 
that Abolitionist agitation would bring disunion and dis- 
aster — the fear of the Constitutional Unionists who foresaw 
in i860 the possible disaster of all extreme positions/ In 
connection with the mercantile interest, the anti-slavery Spy 
gave publicity to the gossip that Richard S. Fay, " the pre- 
siding genius of the riot," was a Bell-Everett man and the 
owner of a slave plantation in North Carolina.^ This may 
or may not have been true, but it serves our purpose : it is 
evidence of a conviction within the state that the extreme 
conservatives were associated, and even in league, with 
Southern interests. 

It is probably true that because of trade and intercourse 
with various parts of the country and the world, and apart 
from private considerations, this mercantile class could see 
some factors in the situation that were unperceived by the 
reformers of merely local experience. But however far- 
sighted the invaders believed themselves to be, the whole 
truth as to the riot of December 3 is, that both the meeting 
and the invasion were mistakes. Even Andrew, a sym- 

1 Cf. supra, p. 34, note i. Caleb Gushing Breckinridge Democrat 
of i860, of course professed the same belief. In a Newburyport 
speech he said the danger to the Union was produced by the purpose 
of a party at the North to act against slavery in the Southern states. 
The contemporary Republican (Feb. 29, i860) explained: "One chief 
cause of the exasperation of the Southern people against the North 
generally arises from their mistaken notion that the radical abolition- 
ists represent Northern sentiment . . . because those who have the ear 
of the South, the Southern poHticians and the Northern pro-slavery 
presses, have an interest in keeping up the delusion. . . . But the dis- 
position to trample on the Constitution and to disregard the rights of 
the Southern states is confined to a very small faction of the North, 
not representing a thousand of the population. The proportion may be 
somewhat larger in Massachusetts." 

* Worcester Spy, Dec. 4, i860. 



88 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [284 

pathizer with John Brown, said the meeting was " injudi- 
cious and luinecessary, if not, in the present condition of 
the country, actually criminal." The Republican press gen- 
erally condemned the calling of the meeting and sympathized 
with those who resolved that the record of the meeting 
should not go forth as the sentiment of Boston uncontra- 
dicted. The Advertiser even discounted the cry of free 
speech for those who would by their speech " embitter still 
further the controversy which now divides the states of this 
Union " ; ^ and the judicious Republican said the Union 
ought to be safe, now that a " conservative mob " had 
broken up the meeting of Abolitionists in Boston. Toward 
the rioters, however, the Republican showed its disapproval 
and remarked scornfully, " There are several varieties of 
the genus fool still extant, and there are certainly none more 
stupid than those who suppose they are contributing to the 
salvation of the Union by attempting to suppress freedom 
of speech in any subject." " Thus it would appear that, 
in the state in general, commendation of the well dressed 
mob was in proportion to the hatred for abolition, and ap- 
proval of the anniversary meeting was in proportion to be- 
lief in abolition at any price. Both factions, however, were 
in the minority ; both were aggressive and powerful ; and 
both continued their unwise policy. 

On Sunday, December 16, i860, Wendell Phillips spoke 
to Theodore Parker's church in Music Hall on Mobs and 

* Advertiser, Dec. 4, i860. It also said, as did the Springfield Repub- 
lican and Worcester Spy later, that persecution was the treatment the 
Abolitionists thrived on. 

2 Springfield Republican, Dec. 4, i860; Sumner MSS, from John 
Murray Forbes, Dec. 22, i860: "I am glad Buchanan-Wigfall & Co. 
put their demands out so clearly — Suppression of free speech, free 
press and free labor." 



285] EMANCIPATION 89 « 

Education,^ Policemen were detailed to the meeting to 
prevent a repetition of the Tremont Temple affair. They 
were also necessary for the safe conduct of Phillips from 
the hall to his home, whither he was accompanied by a 
hostile crowd. This Sunday mob was as respectable in 
appearance as the mob of December 3 ; the cause of its 
assembling was also the same. It was expressed in the 
language of one of their members: " D — n him! he has de- 
preciated stocks $3,000,000 by his slang." ' 

In spite of experience and wise counsel to the contrary 
the Abolitionists again assembled and again rioting fol- 
lowed. The annual session of the Massachusetts Anti- 
slavery Society was appointed to meet in Tremont Temple, 
January 24, 1861 ; its assembling was the signal for the 
gathering of a mob- Police protection was asked and 
granted, but was inadequate ; the rioting was so great in 
the afternoon that Mayor Wightman (Democrat) had to 
interfere. He promised adequate protection for the even- 
ing but withdrew his promise and ordered the hall closed.' 
Again there was commendation and condemnation : for ex- 
ample, the Courier put the blame on those whose infamous 

'^Liberator, Dec. 21, i860; Worcester Spy, Dec. 18, i860; Sears, 
Wendell Phillips, pp. 215-216. Information concerning this episode 
comes from anti-slavery papers alone. 

^ Worcester Spy, Dec. 18, i860. The Spy took delight in this quo- 
tation; for being strongly anti-slavery, it inclined to believe, with 
Phillips, that Boston was " choked with cotton and cankered with 
gold." The Liberator (Dec. 21, 1859) reported there were no roughs 
there, but " merchants' clerks," and by way of explanation — " They 
have to do it! It's their living! The brutal ferocity of this mob of 
well-dressed young men, hke that of its predecessor in Tremont 
Temple, was incited and directed by the cotton interest." 

3 They appealed to Governor Andrew for protection, but he had no 
state police and could not use the militia unless so requested by the 
mayor. Cf. Pearson, Life of Andrew, vol. i, pp. 148-152, for full dis- 
cussion. Accounts also in Letters of L. M. Child, pp. 147-149; Life of 
Garrison, vol. iv, pp. 4-8; Post, Jan. 25, 1861 ; and Liberator, Feb. i, 1861. 



go POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [286 

teachings aim at the " overthrow of the Constitution and 
the destruction of the Union ", while the Advertiser held 
that when the mayor closed Tremont Temple because of the 
threats of the mob every civil right was less secure than 
before ; ^ but from no quarter was there defense of abolition. 
From these episodes and from the comments, therefore, 
it would appear that Abolitionists continued to be an iso- 
lated group unapproved by the regular Republicans and 
attacked by Democrats and conservatives. Indeed Lowell 
had cautiously warned anti-slavery sympathizers, that 
slavery " is no longer the matter in debate and we must 
beware of being led off upon that side-issue. The matter 
now in hand is the reestablishment of order, the reaffirma- 
tion of national unity." ' And though a few, like Warring- 
ton, did express antislavery ideals,' the majority of the 

' Courier, Jan. 26, 1861 ; Advertiser, Jan. 26, 1861. Even the legisla- 
ture was stirred. Mr. Parker, of Worcester, immediately introduced a 
bill to insure and protect freedom of speech, and Mr. Fisk, of Shel- 
burn, introduced a resolution offering the Hall of Representatives to 
the Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society for the purpose of holding a 
session Friday evening. The former was sent to committee, the latter 
was voted down (136 to 69). 

» Lowell, "E Pluribus Unum," Atlantic (Feb., 1861), vol. vii, p. 245. 
Cf. also supra, ch. iii, pp. 71, 76. 

' In the Republican, April 20, 1861, he wrote: "I trust that slavery 
may go to pieces in the first shock of battle." Boutwell (Reminiscences 
of Sixty Years, vol. i, p. 262) claimed that his address to Phi Beta 
Kappa, June 18, 1861, called "The Conspiracy — Its Purpose and 
Power," was, as far as he knew, the first time that emancipation was 
demanded publicly, as a means of ending the war and saving the nation. 
Lowell, however, prophesied in " Pickens-and-Stealin's 'Rebellion," pulv 
lished in the June Atlantic (vol. vii, p. 763) : "We cannot think that 
the war we are entering on can end without some radical change in the 
system of African slavery. Whether it be doomed to a sudden ex- 
tinction, or to a gradual abolition through economical causes, this war 
will not leave it where it was before. As a power in the State, its 
reign is already over. The fiery tongues of the batteries in Charleston 
harbor accomplished in one day a conversion which the constancy of 
Garrison and the eloquence of PhilHps -had failed to bring about in 
thirty years." 



287] EMANCIPATION gi 

Republicans were far from ready in 1861 to follow the lead 
of Sumner even for military emancipation/ They urged, 
as did the Repiihlican, patience on the part of " good haters 
of slavery." Nothing could be gained, they argued, by 
urging abolition as a war measure upon the government, 
whose duty was to suppress rebellion and " let slavery take 
care of itself ! " ' 

Nevertheless the question of the status of the slaves was 
raised early in national affairs by Butler and Fremont. 
Butler's theory of contraband was approved as practical 
military tactics.^ The critical Post said : " In not return- 
ing the fugitives Butler has made no concession to Aboli- 
tion, to Emancipation, to Republicanism, nor to any poli- 
tical question of the day. He has simply obeyed the rules 
of war." * The Post even approved Fremont's order 
emancipating slaves in Missouri in the same light — that of 
military necessity,^ but was satisfied with his withdrawal; 

1 Cf. supra, ch. iii, p. 80. 

' Springfield Republican, Nov. 13, 1861, July i, 1861. Furthermore, 
on June 8 it had said : " If there is one point of honor upon which 
more than another this administration will stick, it is its pledge not to 
interfere with slavery in the states. As a military necessity it is among 
the possibilities, though we confess that it does not look probable." 

3 Pearson, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 284-285, describes the reprimand to 
Butler by Andrew for offering his soldiers to Marylanders against 
negro insurrection. He says Butler caught the sign of the coming 
wind and for his own interest promptly veered about, and that Con- 
traband of War was " one of the cleverest of Northern victories." 

^ Post, May 28, 1861. The Liberator, August 16, 1861, also approved. 
To them it was a short step against slavery. 

^ Also the Newburyport Herald, Sept. 6, 1861, couldn't see the differ- 
ence between Butler's decree and Fremont's proclamation. But it 
wished the government would take no more account of the slaves than 
of trees, and said : " The more the government gets mixed up with 
the slavery question the worse it will be for all of us. The war has 
nothing to do with slavery." Though as a question of military expe- 
diency the Herald held that the government had the power to aboHsh 
slavery. 



92 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [288 

for it said : " It is certain now that this war is waged only 
to bring back the rebellious states under the protection of 
the constitution and the laws, and never has it entered into 
the policy of the North to interfere with the institution of 
slavery in the Southern States." ^ In general, the Republi- 
can press merely indicated the course of the discussion, 
avoiding any positive opinion,- although the Springfield 
Repuhlicaji spoke warningly : 

We are to remember, what at a time like this we are prone 
to forget, that we are fighting for the maintenance of the 
Union, the Constitution and the laws. We have a recent law 
of Congress, made to treat this particular emergency, which 
defines our duty and the duty of the President to all who hold 
authority from him, and to this law we must bow, if we would 
hope to establish law.® 

From two quarters, however, came pronounced opinion. 
Gerrit Smith wrote to the President : " This step of General 
Fremont is the first unqualifiedly and purely right one, in 
regard to our colored population, which has taken place dur- 
ing the war." * The Pilot, on the other hand, called Fre- 
mont's proclamation to emancipate the slaves of Missouri 
a high-handed piece of violence against the Constitution of 
the country, and the most criminal disregard of his instruc- 
tions from Washington.^ On this issue, then, we find the 
majority taking a moderate ground following the will of 
the administration. In the words of the Advertiser they 

* Post, Sept. 20, 1861. 

^ This was the explanation given by the Spring^field Republican, Sept. 
21, 1861. It apparently also explains the policy of the Advertiser. 
^ Springfield Republican, Sept. 17, 1861. 

* Liberator, Sept. 13, 1861. 

* Pilot, Oct. 26, 1861. The Pilot was the Catholic newspaper of Bos- 
ton, cf. infra, pp. 103-104. 



289] EMANCIPATION ^3 

desired " to see the government follow its own judgment 
and sense of duty . . . and to see the people wise enough 
to confide something to the discretion and honesty of their 
chosen servants." ^ 

The moderate conservative policy of standing by the ad- 
ministration was so widespread and the Republican party 
was so unready for the emancipation issue that the anti- 
slavery idealists considered a campaign of education neces- 
sary. Therefore the "Emancipation League" was formed in 
Boston in December, 1861, by Dr. Samuel G. Howe,^ 
Francis W. Bird, George L, Stearns, and Frank B. San- 
born. It purposed by public addresses, by the collection of 
statistics and facts, and by the circulation of valuable docu- 
ments to create a public sentiment in favor of freedom. 
That freedom which it urged, however, was at the beginning 
not abolition, but emancipation as a military necessity, with 
compensation to loyal owners, to be effective only in rebel 
states.^ For the wide dissemination of their ideas the 
League established a newspaper. The Commonwealth, which 
was edited by Moncure D. Conway and Frank B. Sanborn. 

' Sept. 21, 1861. 

" Life of Garrison, vol. iv, p. 48, note 2. The preliminary meeting 
was called together at Dr. Howe's office, Sept. 5, 1861 : Journals and 
Letters of Dr. S. G. Howe, vol. ii, p. 499. Howe declared : " You can- 
not keep up public interest, much less public enthusiasm, about an ab- 
straction, and Union is a mere abstraction now. . . . The word must be 
emancipation." — (J. M. Forbes, Letters and Recollections, vol. i, p. 238, 
to Forbes, Aug. 19, 1861). This was. however, no new determination 
on his part; he wrote Andrew soon after the war broke out: "Since 
they will have it so — in the name of God, Amen ! Now let the gover- 
nors and chief men of the people see to it that war shall not cease until 
Emancipation is secure." — Letters and Journals of Dr. S. G. Howe, vol. 
ii, p. 80. 

* Commonwealth, Jan. 24, 1863 ; Life of Garrison, vol. iv, p. 48, note 2. 
This policy was set forth by Boutwell in an address in Tremont Temple 
under the auspices of the Emancipation League, Dec. 16, 1861 : 
Speeches Relating to the Rebellion, pp. 123-158. 



94 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [290 

But in spite of the impatient doubts of the anti-slavery 
factions, there were evidences that people were getting 
accustomed to the idea of emancipation and even admitting 
its wisdom, and this before the end of 1861. For, even 
though the unwelcome preaching of the Abolitionist had 
been ineffective, and though the action of the state conven- 
tion in Worcester would show that the majority were far 
from ready for the emancipation issue, yet there had been 
favorable comment on Fremont's order emancipating the 
slaves in Missouri/ Moreover Amos A. Lawrence, who 
had been among the witnesses of one of the broadcloth 
riots, wrote to George Lunt, editor of the Courier: 

The present opinion is that there should be no more compro- 
mise to sustain the union by sustaining slavery. But, on the 
contrary, as long as the war lasts, I believe in the propriety of 
the policy of confiscating the property and freeing the slaves 
of all active rebels wherever it can be done. And now that 
we must bear the hardships of war, I believe in securing 
the benefits of it for the advancement of freedom for the 
blacks and the elevating of our national character. ... In 
fact, I hope that this war will not cease until a beginning 
shall be made of emancipation in a constitutional form.^ 

And J. D. Baldwin, editor of the Spy, also observed to 
Sumner in December : ^ 

It appears to us here, as to you in Washington, that slavery 
is doomed. And the slavery question agitates itself so effec- 
tively now it may well be left to the progress of events. . . . 
The only question that remains for us, now, is this: How 
much is it wise for us to do to hasten or force results that 
are coming with such certainty? . . . Mrs. Partington trying 

' Especially by such as the anti-slavery Worcester Spy, e. g., Sept. 2 
and 13, 1 861 ; also in Springfield Republican, Sept. 17, 1861. 
- Lawrence MSS, Nov. 9, 1861. 
s Sumner MSS, Dec. 10, 1861. 



291] EMANCIPATION p^ 

to sweep back the Atlantic Ocean may be quite as sure of 
success as the hysterical hunkerism that now tries to avert 
the doom of slavery/ 

To us, now, this seems a true observation; whether it was 
so in December, 1861, or whether it was the optimism of 
an anti-slavery champion, is rather hard to determine. 
Without doubt there was an encouraging tendency to con- 
sider emancipation, and in this tendency he may have fore- 
seen the ultimate reality of vvhich he dreamed. 

The majority were becoming accustomed to the idea of 
emancipation; but there continued to be protests. George 
Morey, for example, argued that a united front was needed 
against the enemy, and that therefore we could not afford 
to bring the slavery question into Congress; for it might 
divide the North and lessen its power against rebellion.^ 
And the Republican, voicing the opinion of the rank and 
file of its party, said : " The abolition of Slavery is not the 
object of his [Lincoln's] administration. He has no right 
to make that the purpose of the war. His present duty is 
to prosecute the war. and to overpower and punish the 
rebels who seek the destruction of the government." ^ An- 

' Garrison, too, thought the anti-slavery sentiment deepening, though 
he regretted that " we do not come up to the standard and strike for 
the extirpation of the root of all our woes." — Liberator. Feb. 7, 1862. 
This was said at the annual meeting of the Anti-slavery Society which 
a year earlier had been the occasion of rioting. 

2 Sumner MSS, Dec. 8, 1861 ; also Springfield Republican, Nov. 23, 
1861, and Courier, Aug. 20, 1861. On Dec. 13, 1861, the Courier said: 
" The House of Representatives . . . has reminded us of nothing so 
much as an abolition society. . . . The consequence has been that they 
have put in more imminent peril than before the whole cause of the 
Union." 

* Dec. 5, 1861. And J. M. Forbes wrote, Aug. 27, 1861 : "We must 
wait until the military necessity demands more positive action. When 
that necessity comes, the North will be reasonably united — now we are 
divided." Forbes, Letters {Supplementary) , vol. i, p. 292, to David 
Dudley Field. 



^ POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [292 

tagonists of the administration were more insistent in their 
condemnation, while their reasons were similar to those of 
the Republicans. 

The winter and spring of 1862 brought forward several 
definite questions connected with the problem of emancipa- 
tion in general. Confiscation, emancipation with compen- 
sation, emancipation in the District of Columbia, and coloni- 
zation were suggested as solutions. In Massachusetts, as 
elsewhere, confiscation was defended and attacked : de- 
fended as a legitimate war measure for the doom of the 
rebels; attacked as unconstitutional, as being a bill of at- 
tainder and another way of enacting emancipation.^ Eman- 
cipation with compensation was attacked by the extremists 
both radical and conservative. The Liberator called it " a 
decoy duck ", " a red herring ", " a cowardly and criminal 
avoidance of the one great saving issue, namely, the imme- 
diate suppression of the slave system." Garrison argued 
thus : if the government is acting under the war power, then 
any pecuniary arrangement with the rebel slave states is a 
sign of weakness and an act unwarranted by any power 
granted to it; if compensation is not warranted under the 
war power, then Congress has no constitutional right to 
vote it. It is an act of impertinence — meddling with what 
does not concern that body.' From among the other ex- 
tremists the Post objected that Congress had no power to 
lay a tax on the people of the free states to pay Messrs. 
Carroll of Maryland for their three hundred slaves, no 
power to take the free labor of the North to pay slave- 
holders for what is property by the local law of the states.^ 

' Especially by Joel Parker; e. g., The Character of the Rebellion 
(pam.), pp. 33-36. 
' Liberator, March 21, 1862. 
' Post, April 21, 1862. 



293] EMANCIPATION gy 

On the other hand, even conservatives such as Winthrop 
believed that getting rid of slavery in the border states 
could do no hami/ while administration men in general 
were positively enthusiastic ; they called the policy of com- 
pensated emancipation " eminently sagacious " and com- 
mended the far-reaching statesmanship that had " cut the 
knot of the vexed question." With less enthusiasm reso- 
lutions were adopted by the legislature in support of the 
President's policy.^ Emancipation in the District of Co- 
lumbia was soon welcomed as "one of the greatest victories 
of the war." Colonization also had its active champions, 
for the legislature on February 28 had passed an act to 
incorporate the Massachusetts Colonization Society.^ 

Motley, in Vienna, as well as Charles Francis Adams * 
in England, had come to believe not only that emancipation 
would weaken the South and thus hasten Northern victory, 
but also that a clear statement of the slavery issue would 
prevent any alliance of the Southern states which might 
open the cotton ports to European trade. ^ Such an advan- 

1 Winthrop MSS, to John P. Kennedy, Feb. 12 and March 26, 1862; 
also Post, Feb. 14, 1862. 

' George S. Boutwell wrote Sumner, Mar. 28, 1862 : " The hunker 
wing of the iRepublicans were reluctant to approve — hesitated and then 
yielded." {Sumner MSS). 

Also on April 4, 1862, resolutions were adopted approving the presi- 
dent's message urging gradual emancipation with pecuniary aid. A£ts 
and Resolves, 1862, ch. xxxix, p. 221. 

' Acts and Resolves, 1862, ch. xliv, p. 28. 

* Letters and Recollections of J. M. Forbes, vol. i, p. 235. Letter of 
C. F. Adams to J. M. Forbes, Aug. 30, 1861 : " The slave question must 
be settled this time once for all. . . . There is no alternative in my 
mind between taking it [emancipation] up and absolute submission." 

* Holmes, Works, vol. xi, pp. 412, 413. Motley to Holmes, Feb. 26, 
1862: 

" I say, then, that one great danger comes from the chance of for- 
eign interference. What will prevent that? 



98 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [294 

tage was perceived by some within Massachusetts; for ex- 
ample, the Spy on September 24 said : " If England or 
France decides to take possession of this war against the 
North, it will do it in the full knowledge that it is lending 
its aid directly in support of slavery." ^ Indeed this issue 
was the defense later given for the proclamation by Edward 
Everett: he argued that we were gaining nothing at home 
by non-interference with slavery, and were increasing the 
danger of hostile intervention on the grounds that human- 
ity demanded it and that slavery had nothing to do with 
the struggle. 

Thus issue succeeded issue and the people, becoming ac- 
customed and reconciled to the idea of emancipation, were 
less stirred by the attempt of Hunter to put the idea into 
force than they had been by the earlier attempt of Fremont. 
Its critics were strengthened in their loyalty by the Presi- 
dent's rebuke.^ Moreover, active workers for the Union 
cause, such as John Murray Forbes, believed that through 
such a policy as Hunter's the rebels could be weakened and 

" Our utterly defeating the Confederates in some great conclusive 
battle; or, 

" Our possession of the cotton-ports and opening them to European 
trade; or, 

"A most unequivocal policy of slave emancipation. . . . 

" The last measure is to my mind the most important. . . . 

" The question is distinctly proposed to us, Shall slavery die, or the 
great Republic?" 

1 Boutwell, Speeches, p. 193 : " Now that the North ... is put im- 
equivocally on the side of freedom, it will not be easy for the British 
Government to give open aid or official recognition to the rebellion." 
Boutwell was among the people what the Worcester Spy was among 
newspapers. The same view is recorded by Emerson, Journal, 1862, p. 
442, and also published in a pamphlet, Cheap Cotton. Even Lydia 
Maria Qiild said : " I am truly thankful for the proclamation. It is 
doing us a great deal of good in Europe." — Letters, p. 171, to Mrs. L. 
B. Shaw. 

' Post, May 21, 1862. 



29 5 ] EMANCIPA TION 99 

the Northern armies strengthened/ Indeed Warrington's 
comment reveals well the anti-slavery Republican attitude : 

So thought Fremont ; so thinks Hunter ; and so I really believe 
thinks Lincoln, only his terrible habit of procrastination may 
put at naught his wisdom and foresight. . . . Give him time 
and he will make an end of slavery throughout the country, 
. . . Yet slow as he is, he is faster than a large class of his 
supporters.^ 

Barring the criticism of " procrastination ", the observation 
was marvel ously true. Lagging critical supporters, how- 
ever, continued insistently, " Let the Slavery Question 
Alone." They quoted an officer in the army as saying: 
" If this is a war merely for the emancipation, education 
and improvement of the slaves, let us know it, and let 
those fight who wish to. Our army would break up in 
twenty-four hours." * The " merely " probably makes this 
statement true, but qualified or unqualified it shows again 
our thesis that abolition was not the motive of the war. 
Nevertheless the soldiers in general were early in recog- 
nizing its military necessity. 

^ Forbes, Letters {Supplementary) , vol. i, pp. 321-322, to Gen. David 
Hunter, May 23, 1862. 

' Springfield Republican, May 24, 1862. Warrington in the same 
article went so far as to say : " The result is sure enough. It cannot 
be that the war is permitted for any other purpose than the abolition 
of slavery and the reformation of American Society." This was much 
farther than Republicans generally were willing to go. 

* Post, June 23, Aug. 6, 1862. Also Joel Parker, Character of the Re- 
bellion (pam.). Moreover the universal testimony of veterans is that 
they enlisted for the defence of the Union, not for any other purpose 
whatsoever ; they were determined to retain the federal capital and to 
maintain a road thereto, therefore their simple duty was to disperse 
the rebel armies. In May, 1862, after the repudiation of Hunter, Gov- 
ernor Andrew said the men would not enlist unless freedom were the 
purpose. This assertion was met by protest, e. g.. Post, May 26, 
Springfield Republican, May 30. And even Andrew forgot it when 
Washington was threatened by Banks' retreat. 



lOO POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [296 

The marvelous growth of anti-slavery sentiment is evi- 
dent when in April the Post quotes with approval the words 
of General Blair: 

I am for the freedom of all races and creeds, and look for 
the day to come, and that not far distant, when the flag of 
the Union shall float over no slave, and our country shall be 
absolutely the land of the free; but the battle now is for the 
country, and the gallant men . . . give their lives for this 
cherished idea, and not for the emancipation of the African 
race.^ 

Not that the Post or Blair championed emancipation; for 
they consistently did not, but their developing anti-slavery 
sympathies made it possible for emancipation to be used 
as a war measure, even though in July the same paper said : 
" When treasonable abolitionism is exterminated secession 
will cease, the war stop and the Union be restored." ^ 

The Post, however, was slower than individual Demo- 
crats to read the signs of the times. For example, George 
B. Loring of the seceders' convention in Baltimore, said 
in Faneuil Hall: "If the question is to be, whether the 
Union and the Constitution shall perish, or slavery be now 
abolished, if one or the other must now fall, then I say 
slavery must at once be extenninated, cost what it may." 
And this all the people applauded loud and long.^ Even 
earlier than this Forbes had written to the editor of the 
New York Evening Post : " I believe to-day that the old 
Union Democrats, and even the true men of the border 
states, are ahead of Lincoln upon this question of hitting 
the rebels hard — with the negro or any other club." * For 

» Post, April 21, 1862. ^ Post, July 18, 1862. 

^ Post, July 18, 1862; Springfield Republican, July 19, 1862, War- 
rington. 

* Forbes, Letters and Recollections, vol. i, p. 314, to Parke Godwin, 
Jane 23, 1862. 



2gy] EMANCIPATION JOI 

himself he wrote Sumner: " I used to think emancipation 
only another name for murder, fire and rape, but mature 
reflection and considerable personal observation have since 
convinced me that emancipation may, at any time, be de- 
clared without disorder." ^ Thus by August Holmes could 
write Motley: 

There is a defence of blubber about the arctic creatures 
through which the harpoon must be driven before the vital 
parts are touched. Perhaps the Northern sensibility is pro- 
tected by some such encasing shield. The harpoon is, I 
think, at last through the blubber. In the meanwhile I feel 
no doubt in my own mind that the spirit of hostility to slavery 
as the cause of this war is speedily and certainly increasing. 
They were talking in the cars to-day of Fremont's speech at 
the Tremont Temple last evening. His allusions to slavery — 
you know what they must have been — were received with an 
applause which they would never have gained a little while 
ago. Nay, I think a miscellaneous Boston audience would 
be more like to cheer any denunciation of slavery now than 
almost any other sentiment.^ 

Nevertheless two days before the publication of the 
Emancipation Proclamation the Republican had exhorted: 
*' Let every true man stand by the government, approve 
where he can, blame where he must, but give to the men in 
power the cordial sympathy and earnest support they need 
and are entitled to. If all loyal men will do this the coantry 
is safe." ^ There was urging of no policy, but merely of 
acquiescence and loyal support. And such was the spirit 
of acceptance and conservative approval * with which the 

* Forbes, op, cit, vol. i, p. 317, to Charles Sumner, June 21, 1862. 

' Holmes, Works, vol. ii, p. 167, Holmes to Motley, Aug. 29, 1862. 

* Springfield Republican, Sept. 20, 1862. 

* E. g., Hampshire Gazette commented moderately : "A great major- 
ity of the loyal people of the North are well satisfied with this procla- 
mation." 



I02 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [298 

people of Massachusetts received the war measure. To 
quote again the then representative Republicmi: " Such a 
step can only be justified if it will save the Union." In- 
deed, the lack of enthusiasm for it on the part of the 
Abolitionists shows that even they regarded it merely as a 
war measure.^ There were, of course, a few like Asa 
Gray who said he did not see that the time had come for 
the proclamation, but who joined the general acquiescence, 
concluding, " I have a notion that the President knows bet- 
ter than I." ^ There were, also, a few at the time who 
did perceive, (what it has been commonly believed all 
thought), that it was a magnificent deed.* But the reiter- 
ation that " there is no course for genuine loyalty and 
patriotism but earnest and unwavering support of the gov- 
ernment in the enforcement of the measure " shows the 
pervading conservative acquiescence which continued even 
when there was no doubt that the destruction of slavery 
made for the good of the country. 

Yet in spite of the general assent and growing concord 
between men heretofore occupying extremes on public ques- 
tions, there were many who claimed loyalty to the admin- 
istration who regretted the steps toward emancipation. 
These founded a People's party to defeat Sumner, the 
champion of radical Abolition measures.* This platfoiTn 
pledging support to the administration and opposing eman- 
cipation became self -contradictory on September 22 ; and 

' Even John A. Andrew, anti-slavery enthusiast, was only moderately 
satisfied. He wrote Albert Brown : " It is a poor document but a 
mighty act; slow, somewhat halting, and wrong in delay — till January, 
but great and sublime after all." Pearson, Life of Andrew, vol. ii, p. 51. 

' Gray, Letters, vol. ii, p. 94, to George Engelman, Oct, 14, 1862. 

' E. g., Emerson, Works, vol. xi, pp. 2g^-2^. 

* Full description of the platforms and election of 1862 will be found, 
infra, ch. v. 



299] EMANCIPATION 103 

the strength of their opposition was gone, for rebellion 
menacing the capital still demanded support for the party 
of the administration regardless of emancipation. Even 
the Post almost acquiesced ; its loyalty to the administration 
was defined as follows : " The President will be sustained 
in whatever he does to uphold the constitution and to sub- 
due the rebels, but should he transcend legitimate limits — 
gratify the ultra spirits, he will forfeit the confidence of 
his fellow men." ^ Such submission, however, was but 
temporary, for in January it said boldly: "The President 
has no authority to free the slaves en masse, either by 
constitutional law or by the war power." ^ Yet though 
it was charged that the war was now a war of abolition, there 
still remained the consciousness that whatever the fruit 
of this proclamation, one duty remained to all loyal citizens 
— to sustain the government. Individuals also, men such 
as Dana, George T. Curtis, and Winthrop, who could not 
approve of emancipation, felt bound to abstain from in- 
jurious criticism, and so were silent.^ 

Nevertheless there were persistent critics. The Piloty 
the Irish Catholic publication of Boston, had always been 
strong in its opposition to any steps toward emancipation. 
In 1861 it said: "Peace is impossible without the utter 
suppression of the Abolitionist. . . . The soldiers are not 

' Post, Sept. 24, 1862. 

* Post, Jan. 3, 1863. 

' Dana wrote : " It may be right, and may be successful, and it has 
been done. Those are reasons enough for not uttering in public even 
misgivings about it. But I cannot give this course a hearty, intelligent 
support. But I can support the President." — Adams, Dana, vol. ii, p. 
263. And Curtis in a pamphlet, Executive Power (p. 14), said: "This 
proclamation, then, by an executive decree proposes to repeal and annul 
valid state laws which regulate the domestic relations of their people." 
Similarly Winthrop, Memoirs, p. 228, and MSS, to Count Circourt, 
Oct 20. and to J. P. Kennedy, Dec. 30, 1862. 



I04 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [300 

in the march to abolition. They did not enlist for anything 
save the vindication of the constitution." It was largely 
because of the Irish antagonism to free negro labor that 
the Pilot argued for the continuance of blacks in their 
servile position.^ But late in 1863, when emancipation as 
a war measure was generally accepted, the Catholic editor 
said it should have been effected through the church alone, 
when she had become universal in America. Another organ 
of criticism was the Courier. Though this sheet was de- 
clining in power and influence, and though it was represent- 
ing fewer people than in i860, nevertheless it shows the 
presence of an element strongly, insistently opposed to 
the policy of emancipation, who ridiculed the proclamation 
as " a Bull against the Constitution ",^ who then condemned 
it, and called to events to step backward- For example it 
said : " The effect of the war on slavery has been practically 
nothing. . . . They must see . . . that they can have 
neither emancipation nor the alternative which the more 
desperate of them would desire — dissolution. There is no 
way . . . but the old Union and the old Constitution." * 
The extreme Abolitionists here referred to were, now as 
always, a group of persistent critics. That which they had 
demanded a year previous was accomplished, but in that 
year they too had gone forward; they were ahead of the 
general sentiment, and were demanding still more.* The 

* " The Irish, thank God ! have too much self-respect to go for any- 
thing that will place a negro on the same grade in the labor market 
with themselves. What a cause for congratulation to the poor white 
man is the reflection that, unlike the inferior negro race, he is at liberty 
to remove whithersoever his inclination may prompt him." Quoted in 
the Worcester Spy, Nov. 22, 1862. 

' Courier, Jan. 2, 1863. 

» Ibid., July 7, 1863. 

* For example, Wendell Phillips in Cooper Institute said, in sub- 



2oi] EMANCIPATION 105 

Liberator, however, generously conceded the following com- 
mendation : " Though we believe that this Proclamation is 
not all that the exigency of the times and the consequent 
duty of the government require, and therefore are not 
jubilant over it as many others — still, it is an important step 
in the right direction, and an act of immense historic con- 
sequence, and justifies the almost universal gladness of ex- 
pression and warm congratulation which it is has simultan- 
eously elicited in every part of the free states." ^ 

Thus opposition, dissatisfaction, acquiescence, approval 
continued. At the end of the year 1863 the Advertiser 
summarized judiciously: the Emancipation Proclamation 

equally disappointed its advocates and its opponents. It has 
failed to effect that dissolution of the rebel power which was 
so confidently predicted as certain to be its instantaneous ef- 
fect, and has left the actual work of emancipation to be 
performed by the steady advance of military operations. 
On the other hand it has failed to make that disastrous 
division among the loyal which was predicted by many of its 
opponents. The mass of the people have acquiesced in it as 
a military measure taken in good faith.^ 

stance: It does not annihilate the system. In the gospel the devils 
came back to the swept and garnished chambers. Unless free institu- 
tions are put in the South, the old order will return in some form. 
Confiscate the lands and colonize them with Northern men and schools, 
ploughshares and seeds. Send a new government there. Organize the 
South anew. — Liberator, 'ian. 2,0, 1863. And Lydia Maria Child lamented 
that it " was merely a war measure, to which we were forced by our 
own perils and necessities, and that no recognition of principles of 
justice or humanity surrounded the politic act with a halo of moral 
glory." (Letters, p. 171, to Mrs. S. B. Shaw.) She also said : " It 
excites no glow of enthusiasm, because I cannot get rid of misgivings 
concerning contingencies that may occur before the edict goes into 
effect." — Sumner MSS, Oct. 3, 1862. 

' Liberator, Sept. 26, 1862. 

"^ Advertiser, Dec. 31, 1863. 



I06 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [302 

In the meantime various individuals of prominence had 
shifted their position in varying degrees.^ Edward Everett, 
for example, acknowledged his stand for the Crittenden 
resolutions a mistaken policy and on April 9, 1863, at the 
inauguration of the Union Club,^ he said : " Because we 
may doubt the policy of the Proclamation of the 22nd of 
September and ist of January, shall we, as far as in us lies, 
cooperate with the oligarchy of the seceding States in forc- 
ing this * peculiar institution ' into the unoccupied territory 
of the Union? "^ Thus step by step he advanced to his 
unconditional support of the administration in 1864. Amos 
A. Lawrence, conservative in i860, also saw the trend of 
the times, but he saw it more quickly than did Everett, 
and worked actively with the tide; especially by aiding the 
enlistment of negro troops/ On the other hand Robert C. 
Winthrop, also colleague of Everett in i860, remained in 
the past. Though he shared somewhat the growing anti- 
slavery sentiment of the time,^ he persisted in his opposition 
to the majority, quietly in 1862, prominently, as Demo- 
cratic elector, in 1864. He had chosen the losing side and, 
though a man of gifts and prominence, was never entrusted 

' Cf. chart at the end of this chapter. 

2 Cf. infra, ch. v. 

' Works, vol. iv, p. 582, 

* After the parade of the 54th, Amos A, Lawrence wrote in his Jour- 
nal : " May God help this government to crush rebellion, and to crush 
its cause with it — slavery." (Life of Amos A. Lawrence, p. 191.) 

* In his letter to J. P. Kennedy, April 7, 1864, Winthrop gives evi- 
dence of this : " I rejoice in your Maryland movements for getting rid 
of slavery in your own State, but any attempt to mend the United 
States Constitution at present seems to me of doubtful wisdom, to say 
the least. But all's well that ends well, and if we can once more see 
the old Union reestablished in peace and prosperity, nobody will be 
sorry that slavery may have ceased to be an element of agitation and 
disturbance." — Winthrop MSS. 



203] EMANCIPATION lo; 

with conspicuous public office, but is remembered simply as 
the president of the Massachusetts Historical Society.^ A 
prominent conservative of the Republican party was John 
Murray Forbes. He had worked hard for the Union, and 
had championed every means for the preservation of the 
nation because he believed it was " the battle of democracy 
for all the world ", yet he described his own position as 
follows : 

The fact is, I am not good enough to be an abolitionist, which 
demands a certain spirit of martyrdom, or at least self- 
sacrifice, and devotion to abstract principle, which I am not 
yet up to. I am essentially a conservative; have rather a 
prejudice against philanthropists, and have been anti-slavery 
more because Slavery is anti-republican, anti-peace, anti- 
material progress, anti-civilization than upon the higher and 
purer ground that it is wicked and unjust to the slave! I 
have no special love for the African any more than for the 
low-class Irish, but don't want to see either imposed upon. 
You cannot steal one man's labor or any part of it by law 
without threatening to steal, when you get strong enough, 
every man's labor, and property and life! Hence to be anti- 
slavery is to be conservative.^ 

These four men, with John A. Andrew, anti-slavery and 

^ Dr. Worthington C. Ford relates that after the war Winthrop read 
to the Massachusetts Historical Society a letter he had received from 
Everett during the war, and that with tears in his eyes he confessed 
his mistaken judgment in not following Everett in his support of the 
administration. 

2 Person, An American Railroad Builder, p. 109, to William Evans, an 
English merchant, Oct. 18, 1864. On Nov. 27, 1864, Forbes wrote to the 
same : " My policy would be to carry on the war, not for the abolition 
of slavery eo nomine, but for the assertion of the democratic principle, 
and especially for the suppression of the class which is attempting to 
establish an aristocratic government over the North and South." Cf. 
supra, ch. iii, pp. 76 and notes. 



Io8 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [304 

unionist from the beginning, and Wendell Phillips, Aboli- 
tionist pa-r excellence, represent the types among the ma- 
jority who acquiesced in or approved emancipation after 
it was adopted as the policy of the nation. To Phillips it 
was first, to Andrew it was correlated with Union, to 
Lawrence an advantageous by-product, to Forbes part of 
consistent, conservative democracy, to Everett expedient, 
to Winthrop perhaps all right in itself but not germane. 
To the straight Democrats it was also various things: — 
to the Irish an abhorrence; to the generality it came to be 
tolerated ; to some, such as George B. Loring, the course of 
necessity and therefore of wisdom. Thus never can it be 
said that abolition was to Massachusetts the cause, the 
end or the aim of the war. There was one paramount 
issue upon which all but a few fanatics were primarily and 
all ultimately agreed — " the Union it must be preserved " ; 
Union, not abolition, was the watchword of Massachusetts. 
Emancipation was incident and coincident; ultimately, how- 
ever, it was universally accepted as a good.^ 

' William Lloyd Garrison at the American Anti-.Slavery Anniversary,^ 
Mar. 9, 1865, said : " Four years ago there was not a single city, town 
or hamlet in the United States that would not have voted down by a 
large majority the abolition enterprise. Now there is not a single city, 
village or hamlet in the land, that is loyal, that is not ready for the 
immediate emancipation of those in bondage." — Liberator, May 19, 1865. 



305] 



EMANCIPATION 
CHART 



109 



Illustrating the line-up of parties on emancipation i860, and 1864- 
1865. 



Parties in i860 



Const.. Union 



Rep.— Anii-Sl. 




Anti-Adminiitri 



Explanation : 

The line-up of parties in i860 shows that emancipation was not 

an issue. 
The men named are typical of opinions in Massachusetts. 
The slant of the lines shows the degree and direction each changed 

toward the policy; a line slanting to the right is advance toward 

and a line slanting to the left is retreat from. 
The broken Hne of the Abolitionists shows the weakness of their 

satisfaction. 



CHAPTER V 

The Rise and Fall of Copperheadism 

In general copperheads were those of the North who 
sympathized with the men of the South; whose lack of 
censure for rebellion, and whose agitation for peace and 
against the active measures of the administration, tended to 
encourage the South, Politically they were those who or- 
ganized against the party in power and the administration. 
The badge of such an organization in Ohio late in sixty-two 
was the head of the goddess of liberty cut out of a copper 
cent. The wearers and all their sympathizers were soon 
known as copperheads. The word was used contemporan- 
eously in Massachusetts in 1863,^ "hunker" having Ixen the 
term used from i860 through 1862. Popularly any criticism 
of any policy of the administration was dangerous, therefore 
copperheadism. Such a definition, however, is entirely too 
broad, for there were loyal supporters of the government 
who did not fully agree on all points, as for example on 
banking, or the enlistment of negro troops. On the other 
hand, to draw a fine line where criticism ended and copper- 
headism began, is at times a little difficult ; for the latter 
term " should properly be given only to those extreme oppo- 
nents of the war who went so far as to seem, by their agita- 
tion, to give aid to the South. "^ Copperheadism, therefore, 

* Used by Charles Eliot Norton, Feb. 26, 1863, Letters, vol. i, p. 261 ; 
Courier, Mar. 13, 1863; E. W. Emerson, Life of C. R. Lowell, p. 255, 
June 7, 1863. 

* Springfield Republican, March 10, 1863. 

110 ^ [306 



307J THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEADISM m 

is here applied to the desire and effort to supplant the ad- 
ministration and to reverse its policy. Abolitionists could 
be included in this definition but were always distinguished 
as a particular kind of critic, although sometimes con- 
demned as no better than the copperheads. Moreover the 
prominence of their criticism comes in the earlier stage of 
the war and quiets down about the time other organized 
opposition begins to gain strength. Their position will 
be kept distinct throughout the discussion. 

Having followed the developing belief and growing ac- 
quiescence in emancipation from beginning to consumma- 
tion, we now return to the initial stage of the war, when 
support of the government was impassioned and unanimous, 
in order to note the emergence of criticism, and to follow 
the rise of copperheadism through its political efforts and 
its fall into acquiescence and silence. 

As soon as the excitement of the April crisis of 1861 
was passed it was but natural that opinions should find 
divergent paths: some urged an aggressive policy,^ others 
condemned coercive measures and commended " masterly 
inactivity ".^ Support of the government became less en- 
thusiastic as the summer approached; the Abolitionists 
claimed that it was worse than useless to fight for any- 
thing but emancipation ; and the mercantile men were feel- 
ing the disadvantage of war.' But the defeat at Bull Run 

* Even as early as May i, 1861, the Springfield Republican said the 
people were demanding that the government be more aggressive, but 
added, " We are confident that distrust in the government is not well 
founded." 

' Especially the conservatives ; for example, Winthrop MSS, to J. P. 
Kennedy, June 29, 1861. 

' Warrington spoke of the " increasing boldness of the tory position 
of the democratic press " and " the commencing sensitiveness of the 
mercantile men." — Springfield Republican, June 29, 1861. 



112 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [308 

united the factions (excepting the Abolitionists) ^ again. 
Newspapers, Democratic and Republican, condemned agi- 
tation for military activity and exhorted more confident 
trust in the administration.^ The majority probably real- 
ized for the first time the real magnitude of the task, and 
consequently they were convinced that the prospect for any- 
thing that looked like compromise was past.^ Indeed even 
the peace faction in a Democratic meeting in Worcester 
made only a " slight demonstration ", * and the proportional 
increase in the vote for Andrew in November showed that 
opposition to the administration was not formidable.^ 

Nevertheless the lesson learned in July was soon for- 
gotten and, although the administration was supported by 
the votes of the people, criticism of the moderation of the 
government increased;^ even Lowell, whose political judg- 
ment was generally very sound, expressed privately his 
impatience of the President's policy, writing, sarcastically, 
that " Mr. Lincoln seems to have a theory of carrying on 
the war without hurting the enemy." ^ Moreover officials 
of the administration were subjected to criticism, especially 
Scott and Cameron; in fact, the Democrats clamored so 
loud for some change ® that it was suggested that " enemies 

^ They, of course, saw an opportunity to urge emancipation, saying 
that reverses were a punishment for not freeing the slaves : e. g., Sears, 
Life of Phillips, p. 229 : " The Government deserved to be defeated." 

■■* Courier, Aug. 8, 1861 ; Advertiser, Aug. 20, 1861 ; Springfield Repub- 
lican, July 20, 1861. 

* Springfield Republican and Worcester Spy, July 23, 1861. 

* Worcester Spy, Sept. 17, 1861. 

* Cf. supra, ch. iii, p. 82, note 3. 

* Springfield Republican, Oct. 9 and 25, 1861, and Worcester Spy, Oct. 
25, 1861. Both stoutly defended inactivity, showing that the popular 
demand was insistent. 

' Scudder, Life of Lowell, vol. ii, p. 29. 

' Post, Aug. 5, 1861 ; also Courier, Jan. 14, 1862. 



309] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEADISM 113 

(like Hunkers)" might be taking advantage of the dislike 
of the straight Republicans for certain members of the 
cabinet, and weakening the whole administration.^ Further- 
more there was an increasing lack of confidence in Lincoln: 
indeed, even so staunch a Republican as John D. Baldwin 
wrote Sumner that he was losing confidence in the execu- 
tive capacity of Lincoln's administration and that doubt and 
discouragement were spreading among the people.^ The 
Abolitionists, of course, were most definite in their criticism ; 
to them the President seemed incapable of generous senti- 
ments respecting the enslaved. They called him " a man 
of very small calibre " and said he had " better be at his 
old business of splitting rails than at the head of the gov- 
ernment." ^ Accordingly Wendell Phillips even declared 
to Sumner, " Lincoln is doing twice as much to-day to break 
this LTnion as Davis is. We are paying thousands of lives 
and millions of dollars as penalty for having a timid ignor- 
ant President, all the more injurious because honest." * 

Parallel to these noisy attacks of the fanatics was the 
sullen refusal of the Democrats to support the administra- 

^ E. g., Forbes, Letters {Supplementary) , to William C. Bryant, Aug. 
15, 1861. For this reason such papers as the Worcester Spy (Aug. 13) 
and Springfield Republican (Aug. 13) doubted the wisdom of any 
change. 

^ Sumner MSS, Dec. 30, 1862. 

' Garrison MSS, to Oliver Johnson, Dec. 6, 1861. 

* Sumner MSS, June 29, 1862. On January 9, 1862, the Republican 
had commented : " Most of the indirect attacks upon the g6vernment 
come from those who clamor for emancipation as a war measure. . . . 
And because they are dissatisfied on this point they seek every possible 
occasion for faultfinding." But Phillips' attacks on the administration 
became so violent that George Livermore finally wrote Sumner (MSS, 
Aug. 10, 1862): "Cannot j^ou have influence with some of Wendell 
Phillips' friends and have him sent to a mad-house before he is arrested 
as a traitor? ... If he is sane, the prison is too good for him; if crazy, 
have him gently treated but not suffered to go at large." 



114 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [310 

tion because they objected to confiscating the slaves of 
rebels and to the other related measures of 1862. Of them 
both the Republican remarked, " The fanatics and fools 
are still in a large majority, and the prospect is we shall do 
business without their help." ^ In opposition tO' both the 
administration press counselled faith in leaders, the Republi- 
can claiming that though " the man at the helm in this time 
of turmoil and danger, may be uncouth and plain of speech " 
yet " he is honest and wise and we shall go safely through 
and gain a peaceful and pleasant harbor at last." 

The steps toward emancipation and its final accomplish- 
ment quieted the " fanatics ". But this same progress of 
events increased the opposition of the conservatives until 
they organized to block its way. This organization was 
called the People's party. 

Headed by " Joel Parker and Co." of Cambridge and the 
Constitutional Union group, and aided by J. G. Holland, 
(temporary editor of the Springfield Republican),^ the 
Massachusetts People's party included the disgusted Re- 
publicans, the old-time Whigs, the moderate Democrats and 
a few regular Democrats. The movement was not related, 
as its name might imply, to the People's party in New 
York, for that was endorsed by the Republicans and be- 
came the Union party; but the Massachusetts movement 
was parallel to that of Vallandigham in Ohio.* The motive 

^ Jan. 9, 1862. 

* April 19, 1862. This was the comment of the editor who in Feb- 
ruary, 1861, had called Lincoln "Simple Susan"; it was the exhorta- 
tion of loyalty to the administration. Similarly Advertiser as early as 
Aug. 27, 1861. 

3 Cf. appendix ii, p, 204, note 2. 

* Porter, Ohio Politics during the Civil War Period, ch. iii, pp. 138- 
144 (Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public 
Law, vol. xl, no. 2). Brummer, Political History of New York State 
during the Period of the Civil War, ch. iii, pp. 165-175 (Columbia Uni- 
versity Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, xxxix, no. 2). 



31 1 ] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEADISM 115 

of the Massachusetts party, the great purpose which brought 
it into existence, was the defeat of Sumner, the champion of 
anti-slavery measures/ The Hampshire Gazette added, 
" to strike a blow at the President," the Courier said, " to 
prevent the dissolution of the Union." - Whatever inter- 
pretation was put upon the movement, the campaign was 
largely a personal one. The issue was the administration 
and emancipation, with Sumner and Andrew, as champions, 
or the administration without emancipation, — " The Union 
as it was " ; in personality it was the administration and 
Sumner, or the administration without Sumner, — in short, 
Sumner.^ Thus it was that the Republican classified the 
diverse elements of the party : first, Democrats who' hated 
Sumner, because they were Democrats and in sympathy 
with slave-holders, and because they were men with party 
prejudices, party motives, etc., and Sumner stood in their 
way ; second, hunkers, living in and about Boston * chiefly, 
who opposed him on the general principle that nobody had 
a right to go faster than they did, and that none but them- 
selves had a right to hold office; third, those who believed 
that Massachusetts had sons who were capable of repre- 

^ Advertiser, Oct. 14, 1862; Pilot, Oct. 14, 1862; Sumner MSS, from 
Wendell Phillips, May i, 1862. 

^ Hampshire Gazette, Oct. 28, 1862; also Worcester Spy, Oct. 30, 
1862; Courier, Oct. 31, 1862. 

* A meeting had been held in Charlestown as early as November, 
1861, agitating his removal. — (Warrington, Springfield Republican, Nov. 
9, 1861). In June, 1862, Andrew had warned him that hunkers would 
try to become the tax-collectors, and that they in their traveling from 
town to town might poison the minds of citizens against him and thus 
secure defeat through representatives sent to the legislature. (Sumner 
MSS, June 9, 1862, and Works, vol. vii, p. 237.) 

* Samuel Hooper wrote Bancroft (MSS), Nov. 10, 1862, that the new- 
party " embraced all the respectability and eminent gravity of Boston 
and its vicinity." Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and Judge Hoar both op- 
posed Sumner. Harvard College belonged to the People's party. 



Il6 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [312 

senting her better than he, — men who were the truest friends 
to Lincohi, and who had no personal hatred, but thought 
somebody other than Sumner would be better for state and 
country/ The same authority said three classes supported 
Sumner: first, the Abolitionists, because he represented their 
wild sentiments on the subject of African slavery; second, 
those who took him on because he was hard to get rid of 
or because they wanted the support of the Abolitionists ; 
third, those who feared his defeat would be interpreted to 
mean that Massachusetts had changed her attitude toward 
slavery.- 

The Fall campaign was opened by the Republicans. The 
state convention assembled in Worcester, September 10, in 
response to the call for the cooperation of all " who would 
support the present National and State Governments, and 
in favor of all means necessary for the effectual suppres- 
sion of the Rebellion." ^ Its president, A. H. Bullock, 
argued, that in the progress of twelve months they had 
learned, if they did not conquer the rebellion the rebellion 
would conquer them, that African slavery on this continent 
was so intimately connected with the war that the two things 
could no longer be considered apart. In this belief the 
convention resolved that Massachusetts, " with all her heart 

'Oct. 20, 1862. Earlier, Sept. 13, 1862, the Republican explained: 
" The great commercial and manufacturing interests of Massachusetts 
... do not regard themselves as completely represented in Washington 
by Mr. Sumner," for to him it was " the negro forever and nothing 
else." Similarly the Courier, Oct. 7, 1862. The Springfield Republi£an, 
however, preferred Sumner to a Democrat or a Boston-CoMr;>r Whig — 
either of whom would be a triumph to the rebels and an insult to the 
President. J. G. Holland and his faction wanted C. F. Adams for 
Senator, His Republican (Oct. 10, 1862) said: "H Mr. Sumner were 
the only anti-slavery man in the state, we would vote for him ; but he 
is not." 

» Springfield Republican, Oct. 10, 1862. 

' Advertiser, Sept. 5, 1862. 



213] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEADISM ny 

and soul and mind and strength ", would support the presi- 
dent of the United States in the prosecution of this war 
" to the entire and final suppression of the rebellion ", that 
" the institution of slavery was the principal support of the 
rebellion," and that the institution " should be extermin- 
ated." ^ 

On September 13, that " the loyal men in Massachusetts " 
might " in the most effectual manner sustain and support 
the government ", Joel Parker issued a call for a meeting 
to nominate state officers. A convention assembled October 
7; it named among its vice-presidents representatives of the 
three parties of i860: Josiah G. Abbott, Democrat; Edward 
Dickinson, Constitutional Unionist; Benjamin F. Thomas, 
Republican. Then the assembly adopted the congressional 
resolution of July, 1861, which declared that 

the war is not waged on our part in any spirit of oppression, 
or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose 
of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established 
institutions of those states, but to defend and maintain the 
supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union 
with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several states 
unimpaired, and as soon as these objects are accomplished 
war ought to cease. 

They claimed to make no captious criticism of the Presi- 
dent's acts or policy, nor to impose any conditions upon 
their patriotism, and they resolved " that Massachusetts 
with all her heart and soul, and mind, and strength, will 
support the President of the United States in the prosecu- 
tion of this war and the entire and final suppression of the 
rebellion." Nevertheless they protested against the pos- 

^ Advertiser, Springfield Republican, Worcester Spy, Sept. 11, 1862, 
Resolutions i and 2. 



Il8 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [314 

sibilities of military despotism, desiring men in Congress 
" who shall guard against the slightest encroachments upon 
the legislative and judicial powers, and shall see to it 
that those great safeguards to liberty, exemption from 
arrest without legal warrant, trial by jury, and writ of 
habeas corpus, are preserved in loyal and peaceful states." ^ 

The Emancipation Proclamation of September 22 made 
their position of loyalty to the President and opposition to 
emancipation both ridiculous and futile. They therefore 
claimed to hope that the one hundred days might change 
the policy.' Meanwihle one vice-president rather ambigu- 
ously urged " unconditional and unquestioning support of 
the President in all constitutional measures, ... in putting 
down this accursed rebellion." ^ Judge Parker even said, 
" I support the President, proclamation or no proclamation, 
and shall continue to do so until we crush out rebellion and 
restore the Union of the States. . . . Moreover," he added, 
" when I see in consequence of the proclamation the flag 
flying over every State from Maine to Georgia, then I 
will say God bless the Proclamation." * Their movement 
was really quashed ; for the more popular abstract proposi- 
tion against which they had been working was accomplished. 

The Democratic convention met the day after the 
People's convention and confimied its nominations.^ It is 

^ Courier, Oct. 8, 1862. 

'^ Newburyport Herald, Oct. 20, 1862 ; Post, Oct. 9, 1862 ; Joel Parker, 
Address to the People of Massachusetts, Oct. 30, 1862 (pam.), p. 6. 
■' Post, Oct. 9, 1862, J. G. Abbott's speech. 

* Courier, Oct. 8, 1862, Judge Parker's speech. 

* Colonel Devens, of Worcester, was named for governor. He had 
been a Webster Whig. He was United States Marshal under Fillmore 
and the first fugitive-slave case passed through his hands. He had 
offered to help purchase Sims. Added to those credentials, he was a 
miHtary man and likely to get the soldier vote. Later he became a 
Republican. Boutwcll, Reminiscences, vol. i, p. 267. 



315] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEADISM ng 

interesting to note that the Democrats called to meet were 
those who favored " maintaining the Constitution as it is and 
restoring the Union as it was," expressed in the language 
of the congressional resolution which was embodied in the 
resolutions of the People's party published October 7. The 
Democratic resolutions, however, were more bold in their 
statement of opposition to the policy of the administration, 
for they declared : " In the name of civilized humanity, we 
respectfully but earnestly protest against the emancipation 
proclamation of the President of the United States, both 
on the ground of its unconstitutionality and inexpediency, 
and unjustifiability on the ground of military necessity." 
They also called upon the President to recognize the loyalty 
of the people by restoring to them the right of trial by 
jury and freedom of speech and the press.^ Their con- 
tention, like that of the People's party, was that the fate 
of the country hung on the overthrow of the radicals,^ and 
in the concrete, the defeat of Sumner. 

The alliance of People's Party and Democrats was 
doomed to failure; it rested on a mistaken judgment of the 
situation. " The Constitution as it is and the Union as it 
was " were of the past. Though the vote of the opposition 
increased from 33 per cent to 39 per cent in 1862,^ yet that 

* Post, Oct. 9, 1862. Resolutions 8 and 10 of the Democratic Con- 
vention. 
» E. g., the Post, Oct. 6, 1862. 

' The graph shows this variation of political opinion very clearly ; cf. 
appendix i. Moreover, the vote in comparison with that of 1861 
was much larger for both parties, which showed the increased in- 
terest in the issues : 

186^ 1861 

Republican 80,835 65,261 

People's 52,587 Democrat 31,266 

Scattering 796 

Totals 133,422 97,325 



I20 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [316 

increase was far from attaining control. Nevertheless the 
opposition was growing, and it was organized. 

In 1863 there was three episodes which, though not party 
issues, show the existence and character of copperheadism, 
— the visit of McClellan to Boston, the opposition to the 
enlistment of negro soldiers, and the draft riots. 

The first episode, the visit of McClellan to Boston, was 
a very peaceful and rather subtle evidence of anti-admin- 
istration propaganda. Though it was said that the visit 
was not a public affair, nevertheless public receptions were 
given and the Pilot reported that " principal merchants and 
bankers " closed their stores on February first in honor of 
the visitor.^ And after eight days of triumphant visiting, 
when, at times, thousands had waited on the street for a 
glimpse of this private guest, he was publicly presented with 
a sword by George Lunt. the copperhead editor of the 
Courier. The sword bore the motto. " Pro rege saepe 
patria semper.'' ' 

It was claimed by some of the administration men who 
took part in entertaining McClellan, especially by George 
Ticknor, that such a movement tended neither to restore 
him to the head of the annies, nor to make him President 
of the United States; it was simply a graceful tribute to 
his services.^ Nevertheless, it w^as generally believed by the 
Republican press that McClellan was invited by the old 
Constitutional Union group to get a popular following be- 
cause of military heroism and thus to lay the foundations 
for opposition to the administration in the presidential cam- 
paign of the coming year. The Springfield Republican 
caustically remarked, that no stranger ever goes to Boston 

' Feb. 6, 1863. 

' Courier, Feb. 6, 1863. 

* Letters of George Ticknor, vol. ii, p. 458. to George T. Curtis. 



317] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEAD ISM 121 

unless he wants something and no one is invited unless the 
city wants something of him, adding, " evidently a presi- 
dent is wanted." ^ The judgment of the Spy is in John 
A. Andrew's Scrap Book, and we may therefore consider 
it of value. 

The Democratic party and the debris of all the parties opposed 
to the administration, have not even affected to conceal that 
their admiration of McClellan rose just in proportion as he 
fell under the displeasure of the government.^ They alone 
applauded his delays when the government and the country 
were in agony for victory. They alone were willing to re- 
ceive him. ... It wasn't that they admired him for any dis- 
tinguished merit . . . but they hated the administration with 
a confident and enduring hatred and found in General Mc- 
Clellan a convenient instrument if he could be persuaded to 
serve them. . . . The few political Brahmins deemed it a good 
opportunity to concentrate all the hostile political elements in 
the loyal states about a hero — and if a hero of the Peninsular 
campaign is available, they will not seek for another.^ 

The furore had its run; the mass of the people tumbled 
down before a popular idol ; and Bullock reported to An- 
drew : " The work of lionizing the chieftain goes bravely on. 
There is a constant buzz within the charmed circle whose 
sun rises in Chelsea and sets in Back Bay." * There were 

» Feb. 9, 1863. 

" His removal from command, 1862, had been approved by the anti- 
slavery papers and disapproved by those of Democratic leanings. 
(Worcester Spy, Nov. 11, 1862; Commonwealth, Nov. 5, 1862; Courier, 
Nov. 10, 1862; Springfield Republican, Nov. 13, 1862.) Therefore it 
would appear that the people of Massachusetts in paying tribute to a 
military hero were paying tribute to one in whom they believed, con- 
trary to the confidence of the administration, and that this movement 
was, consequently, antagonistic to the administration. 

' Worcester Spy, Feb. 7, 1863. 

* Jan. 30, 1863. Similarly the Springfield Republican, Feb. 9, 1863. 



122 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [318 

to be sure no public demonstrations of disapproval ; never- 
theless the subtle leaders and the populace had to be quietly 
dealt with.^ The course pursued is described by John 
Murray Forbes in a letter to Beckwith of London : 

McClellan has been starring it here in Boston, the tool of the 
reactionists w^ho hope to unite the head and sole of society, 
Beacon Street and five points, Fernando Wood, Wall Street, 
and Jeff Davis, the arch repudiator. We are answering it by 
forming a loyal club, pushing up Congress all we can to pass 
such laws as are necessary for the rest of Abraham's reign, 
by educating the people through the press.^ 

The New England Loyal Publication Society, which at- 
tempted the education of the people through the press, was 
promoted by John Murray Forbes. It, however, was not 
launched against the recent demonstrations alone, for be- 
fore the society was organized Forbes through his clerk 
had sent out hundreds of printed slips all over the country 
and through Governor Andrew to the army. Yet, with- 
out doubt, the demonstrations of February deepened the 
conviction that public opinion needed direction. And 
on March 10, 1863, John Murray Forbes, Samuel G. 
Ward, Charles E. Norton and Martin Brimmer met at 
Martin Brimmer's house, No. 48 Beacon Street, at 7.30 
p. m., " to take steps for the f onnation of a society for the 
publication and distribution of sound doctrine and informa- 

' O. W. Holmes wrote Forbes, Feb. 5, 1863 : "All the idiots, who have 
been good-naturedly confounded with the imbeciles of partial intelli- 
gence, go tumbhng down before the idol of the moment, in confessed 
total inanity. . . . Don't let us get angry at these gratuitous exhibitions 
of Punch and Judy. Let us take our tickets and look on. It is not by 
attacking them that we shall gain most, but by aggressive movements 
from another quarter." Forbes, Reminiscences, vol. ii, p. 218. 

» Ibid., vol. ii, p. 217 (Feb. 5. 1863). 



^Iq] the rise and fall of COPPERHEADISM 123 

tion on public affairs." ^ Charles E. Norton and James B. 
Thayer became the editors of the broadsides - which at the 
moderate expense of $4000 were sent to individuals and 
newspapers within and without the state.* In many cases 
the country newspapers transcribed these articles for edi- 
torials,* and thus consciously and unconsciously extended 
the influence of the society. 

The other device to meet the reactionaries, of Boston in 
particular, the loyal club referred to by Forbes, was the 
Union Club of Boston. All the existing clubs were lack- 
ing in staunch loyalty to the administration: the Friday 
Club was composed of conservatives who, with two excep- 
tions, Chief Justice Bigelow and Louis Agassiz, voted for 
McClellan in 1864;^ the Somerset Club, the largest in 
Boston, was of similar sympathies. Forbes explained the 
situation thus: 

The fact is " club men " who live by wine and cards, tobacco 
and billiards for their cheap stimulants and time killers, gravi- 
tate very strongly toward secesh sympathies. They are apt to 
think themselves aristocratic and gentlemenlike, and they look 

* From MS letter in the New England Loyal Publication Society Col- 
lection (Boston Public Library), vol. i, p. 27. 

* James B. Thayer edited broadsides nos. 203-218 (July 7, 1864, to 
Aug.(?), 1864), while C. E. Norton was at Ashfield. Note by C. E. 
Norton in the A^. E. Loyal Publication Society Collection. 

' According to statistics from the collection — 

August I, 1863, 800 newspapers were supplied. 

r 831 

October i, 1863, -< 214 individuals and clubs were supplied. 

(. 1045 Total. 
November i, 1863, 1256 " 

* Norton, Letters, vol. i, p. 223. 

■^ Winthrop MSS, to Judge Clifford, Dec. 10, 1864. Agassiz was, how- 
ever, according to C. E. Norton {op. cit., p. 260, to G. W. Curtis, Feb. 
I, 1863), a devoted admirer of McClellan. 



124 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [320 

up to the idle slave-owners with respect as being more per- 
manently idle than themselves ; at least it is so here. Hence 
the public opinion influenced by our clubs is generally un- 
sound, and there is great need of a rallying point for the un- 
conditional loyalists.^ 

The new club had the support of Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
who was optimistic in his confidence in it because, he 
argued : 

We shall soon find where the people stand, and when once a 
rallying point is given for all who mean hearty loyalty, the 
weaker brethren who do not know what they believe will walk 
in with white cravats and vacuous features, and leave the 
malignants in the only position they are ashamed of — that of 
being in the minority.^ 

The first meeting of the new club was called for Wednes- 
day, February 4, 1863, when McClellan was still " starring " 
in Boston; it met at the house of Samuel G. Ward, No. i 
Commonwealth Avenue. Its principles, as published in the 
call, were not those of any party or propaganda. They 
were as follows : 

1. The condition of membership, shall be unqualified loyalty 
to the Government of the United States, and unwavering sup- 
port of its efiforts for the suppression of the Rebellion. 

2. The primary object of the Association shall be to dis- 
countenance and rebuke by moral and social influences, all 
disloyalty to the Federal Government ; and to that end the 
association will use every proper means, in public and private.' 

' Forbes, Letters (Supplementary), vol. ii, p. 80. 

* Forbes, Reminiscences, vol. ii, p. 218, Feb. 5, 1863. 

' The call, a broadside, is among the Lawrence MSS. It was signed 
by Edward Austin, J. Ingersoll Bovirditch, John M. Forbes, James L. 
Little, Samuel G. Ward, Charles E. Norton, Martin Brimmer and 
Charles W. Storey. Later Amos A. Lawrence helped organize a Union 
Club in Brookline and was one of the vice-presidents. 



22 1 ] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHBADISM 125 

The club was finally inaugurated on April 9, with Edward 
Everett as president/ He was chosen partly because of 
his personal gifts, but more especially because the organ- 
izers thought it wise not to have a pronounced radical as 
leader, since they hoped to win members from all parties. 
The inaugural address is interesting for its frankness, and 
because it was a step toward the position that made Everett 
an elector in 1864, as well as because it illustrates well the 
position of the Union-serving conservative; he said: 

I admit, however, that without being much of a partisan, I 
belonged to the President's opposition. But what then? 
There is a loyalty in opposition as well as a loyalty of sup- 
port. Shall I, because I am not a political supporter of the 
administration, sit quietly by and see the government over- 
turned and the country dismembered? Because we did not 
vote for Mr. Lincoln's administration, must we hold back from 
the vigorous prosecution of the war, which is to prevent Mr. 
Davis from installing himself at Washington? Because we 
may disapprove of the removal of General McClellan, shall we 
do what we can to paralyze the arm of his successor? Such 
has not been the course of McClellan himself. . . . Because 
we may doubt the policy of the Proclamation of the 22nd of 
September and ist of January, shall we, as far as in us lies, 
cooperate with the oligarchy of the seceding states in forcing 
their " peculiar institution " into the unoccupied territory of 
the Union ; in reopening the African slave-trade, ... in over- 
turning this most admirable Constitution of government? . . . 
Let us, then, meet it like men. Let us show ourselves equal 
to the duty imposed upon us, and faithful to the trust to which 
we are called. The cause \A which we are engaged is the 

^ The officers were as follows : — President : Edward Everett. Vice- 
Presidents : Charles G. Loring, J. Ingersoll Bowditch, Charles B. Good- 
rich, William B. Rogers. Directors : Edward Austin, Martin Brimmer, 
George B. Chase, John M. Forbes, Samuel Johnson, Jr., James L. Little, 
Francis E. Parker, Harrison Ritchie. Treasurer : Samuel G. Ward. 
Secretary : Charles W. Storey. — Broadside in Lawrence MSS. 



126 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [322 

cause of the Constitution and the Law, of civiHzation an4 
freedom, of man and of God. Let us engage in it with a readi- 
ness and fortitude, a courage and a zeal, a patience and a re- 
solution, a hope and a cheer, worthy of the fathers from whom 
we are descended, of the country we defend, and of the privi- 
leges we inherit.^ 

The second episode of 1863 expressing opposition to the 
administration was the resistance to the enlistment of negro 
soldiers. This was shared by all parties, for it was due to 
race prejudice.^ The necessity of the times, however, early 
convinced many : for in the winter of 1863 the demand for 
soldiers far exceeded the supply; it was estimated that 
I23,cx)0 new men were needed annually and that in the year 
1863 nearly one-half of the aniiy was entitled to discharge 
and these must be replaced.^ Later the draft impressed 
upon others the seriousness of the demands of the army.* 
Moreover people gradually became accustomed to the idea; 
for the troops, officered by the best men the state could fur- 
nish, were well disciplined and behaved well.'^ Finally the 

' Everett, Works, vol. iv, pp. 581, 587. 

^ Colonel Hallowell of the S4th says : " There was a strong feeling 
against the negro because of his color and ignorance, and they didn't 
like to see him in uniform and treated as the equal of the white." 
Similarly the Hampshire Gazette, Sept. i, 1863, and the Springfield Re- 
publican, June 21, said: "Not one in fifty is worth the salt junk he 
would eat." 

' Springfield Republican, Jan. 20, 1863. 

* Lawrence MSS, to Major G. L. Stearns (Nashville, Tenn.), Nov. 2, 
1863 ; and to the Hon. Henry Nelson, Aug. 10, 1863, he wrote : " What- 
ever opposition existed here to the employment of colored troops has 
been dispelled by the enforcement of the draft. All now think alike, 
and those who have the welfare of the conscripts at heart are most 
anxious to save them from service in the extreme South and South 
West." 

* It was Governor Andrew's policy to get the best officers for colored 
troops, especially men of real social position, for that helped remove 
the prejudice against the policy. The names of Shaw, Higginson and 
Hallowell are famous in this connection. 



223] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEADISM 127 

real situation was calmly appreciated, in the words of Amos 
A. Lawrence: 

Our able bodied citizens are pretty nearly all in the army or 
navy. What we have here are not enough to do the common 
mechanical work. We have lost not less than 100,000 men, 
and some kinds of mechanical labor are at a stand. In this 
town where I live [Brookline] the whole number of able 
bodied Americans is not enough to satisfy the present call. 
We have enough aliens, but as long as they have work they 
prefer to stay here, and we cannot force them to enlist. Let 
us take what we can get. Negroes where well commanded 
make useful soldiers.^ 

Lawrence himself is an example of the shifting opinion 
on this subject; in i860 he was the gubernatorial nominee 
of the Constitutional Unionists; in February, 1863, he said 
that no negroes should be encamped and drilled in the 
state, and if their enlistment should excite animosity it 
should be dropped and negroes used only for laborers; ^ 
in December, 1863, he said, " We need such a measure " (to 
fill part of our quota with negroes recruited out of the 
state), and finally he became active in recruiting negro 
troops, subscribing to the 54th and writing advertisements 
for money for recruiting. 

For the general shifting of opinion the New England 
Loyal Publication Society had lent its influence. Its broad- 
side signed "Audax " (John M. Forbes), knd addressed to 
the editor of the Daily Advertiser of August twenty-fourth, 
presented seven reasons defending the policy: 

1st. Every negro enlisted in the rebel States takes one man 
from the enemy's resources, and thus counts as double. 

* Lawrence MSS, to J. M. Forbes, Dec. i, 1863. Though the letter 
was written after the bitterness of opposition had passed, it shows well 
the need that quelled the opposition. 

^ Ibid., to G. L. Stearns, Feb. 10, 1863. 



128 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [324 

2nd. Acclimated negroes are now admitted by even the most 
prejudiced to be more valuable, man for man, than unaccli- 
mated white troops at the South. 

3rd. Every negro trained to arms adds to the facilities for 
reconstruction by taking away from the slave holders the 
hope of reestablishing their peculiar institution. . . . 

4th. The Emperor Napoleon . . . fully appreciated the value 
of black soldiers. . . . He attempted to import them into 
Mexico. 

5th. Our friends and our enemies, in both England and 
France, base their hopes and their fears of our success upon 
our use of the negro element. . . . 

6th. Economy of our home resources points to using the 
acclimated and unemployed blacks of the South to the great- 
est extent possible rather than to draw any more than we can 
help upon our skilled and well paid labor at the North, where 
every man is wanted for workshop or harvest.^ 

7th. Military service is the best mode of training the freed- 
men to his new duties, of preventing irregular warfare of 
black against white, and of raising the negro in his own self- 
respect and in that of his white fellow countryman. 

Within twelve months, therefore, necessity, experience 
and education did their work : prejudice was removed and 
the wisdom of the policy was recognized; in fact the Ad- 
vertiser commented, " There is probably no point as to 
which the progress of opinion has been more remarkable 
among the people of the loyal states." " To the minds of 
the radicals, however, the departure of the first colored 

' This was an argument of Andrew's. Pearson, Life of Andrew, vol. 
ii, p. 143. 

2 Feb. 12, 1864; also Hampshire Gazette, Sept. i, 1863. The Adver- 
tiser itself had not advocated the enlistment of negroes in March, 1863, 
but on May 6th protested against the maltreatment of a negro major 
in Baltimore, and on November 13 advocated equal pay for the colored 
troops. 



325] ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ FALL OF COPPERHEADISM 129 

regiment was more than acquiescence in an administration 
measure of military necessity; it marked an era in the 
history of the enslaved race: thereby the negro would take 
rank among men, and be accorded a position equal to his 
merits ; ^ the negro as a soldier became the foundation upon 
which to build for negro citizenship and negro suffrage. 

The third episode of 1863 giving evidence of copper- 
headism was the draft riot of July 14. Previously (in 
1862) there had been threats when a draft was impend- 
ing: in fact Andrew had received from new and returned 
men bitter threatening letters of personal rebellion against 
conscription ; - and the Society of Friends had protested 
against any of their number being forced to bear anns. 
They even held a special meeting in Boston, the thirtieth of 
July 1863, to call attention to their ancient discipline that 
they were not to enlist even when drafted, nor pay the 
commutation.^ Such murmurings were to be expected, but 
the riot of July was a crisis which at the time seemed 
portentous. 

The immediate cause was the serving of notices on 
drafted men of the North End. When David Howe, who 
was performing his duty, called at a house in Prince Street, 
he was attacked by the drafted man and his friends- Howe 
was badly injured; a mob gathered and attacked the police; 
but arrests were made and squads of police were stationed 
in different parts of the North End to prevent a spread of 
the tumult. The military were ordered to their respective 
armories, and at five in the afternoon the third company of 
heavy artillery arrived from Fort Independence. Never- 

* Worcester Spy, May 29, 1862, and Hampshire Gasette, Sept. i, 1863. 
' Andrew MSS, July 8 and Aug. 6, 1862, and July 4 and Aug. 18, 1863. 
^ From a Broadside calling a meeting. Also Andrew MSS, from the 
Society of Friends, Sept. 9. 1862. 



130 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [326 

theless in the early evening, at seven o'clock, a large and 
boisterous crowd assembled in front of the Light Artillery 
Armony in Cooper Street. The windows were smashed 
and missiles fell about the men within. Finally when the 
door was broken in. Captain Jones ordered the man at the 
gun to fire. Several fell and the rabble dispersed; the 
killed and wounded were dragged away, unnumbered and 
unnamed. Another exciting scene occurred in Dock 
Square: there hardware stores were robbed and the crowd 
armed itself with rifles, pistols and bowie knives. Again 
regulars from Fort Independence arrived; the square was 
cleared by the police and strong guards were placed along 
the streets; pieces of cannon of the first and second com- 
panies of the heavy artillery were placed so as to sweep the 
square; and a military patrol was established for the rest 
of the night.^ 

Thus the Advertiser was able to conclude its account 
as follows : 

As we go to press the military are at their posts and all is 
quiet. Little knots of people, however, still linger about 
Cooper and the adjacent streets but threaten nothing serious. 
It is gratifying ... to record the complete triumph of law 
and order in the fearful scenes of yesterday and the unhesitat- 
ing and stern display of military power to accomplish that end. 

The editors should have been gratified also because of the 
forehandedness of their efficient governor, who, learning 
from the police that there was a mob of 5000 at the North 
End, immediately ordered Major Gordon to send whatever 
of the nth Infantn,' he had at the Fort. The Governor's 
own comment was : " I began my work the moment I arrived 
in Boston, thinking the New York movement was sympto- 

' New York Tribune, July 15 and 17, 1863; Advertiser, July 15, 1863; 
Pearson, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 133, 134. 



327] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEADISM 131 

matic of a wider disease, and I was three hours ahead of 
the mob, so that we had troops ready tO' turn over to the 
municipal authorities before there was any real outbreak." ^ 
In all probability the riot had gained some encourage- 
ment from New York, for " any phase of popular excite- 
ment is liable to go over the country like a wave ".- The 
public mind was excited; meetings had been held Monday 
night (July 13), and some intemperate and treasonable 
speech had been indulged in. The rabble of Tuesday, how- 
ever, was so quickly and forcibly dispersed that there was 
no outbreak elsewhere. Moreover the majority of Massa- 
chusetts citizens saw beyond personal interest and believed 
the draft a wise policy, for it showed the vigor of the 
government at the same time that it would furnish men 
needed for victory. These, the great law-abiding classes, 
believed if the government had ordered it, the demand 
must be met.* Every paper except the Courier * held that 
" the laws must be sustained ; the peace preserved, else the 
government becomes a mockery and existence worthless-" 
The excitement, accordingly, soon died down, and by July 
25 the Spy commented : 

Whatever hostile political influences may have been con- 
cerned in these riots, whatever conspiracies may have sought 

' Andrew MSS. ' Contemporary view of the Journal, July 15, 1863. 

•Especially, Springfield Republican, Aug. 5, 1862; Advertiser, July 8 
and 31, 1863; and Post, Mar. 11, 1863. 

* The Courier, July 14, 1863, said of the New York riot: "If this 
Government undertakes to set itself above the fundamental law of the 
land on whatever pretext, the populace will feel itself freed from obli- 
gations of law, otherwise held sacred, whenever the provocation to do 
so occurs. When this state of things comes about, anarchy is begun. 
. . . Those, therefore, who have advocated the setting aside of the con- 
stitution, upon the plea of military necessity, may see plainly the conse- 
quences." 

5 These were the words of the Post, July 16, 1863. 



132 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [328 

this method of doing injury to the government, they never for 
one moment deserved the consideration that has been given to 
them. . . . Here and there anonymous and unknown writers 
in copperhead newspapers express a kind of cowardly sym- 
pathy for the scoundrels, and seek to keep alive the false im- 
pression of wide-spread disaffection and hostility to the meas- 
ures of the government. 

Later on, in 1864, there are indications of some fear of 
more riots but no outbreak occurred.^ 

Thus if we to-day should pass judgment on the mani- 
festations of copperheadism in 1863, it would appear that 
the visit of McClellan was evidence of the most serious 
opposition to the government, for the political organization 
that finally nominated him gained steadily in strength and 
influence, while the riots were permanently quelled and negro 
troops became an established institution. The political 
register for the year gives no evidence of any formidable 
opposition to the administration. Since this was an off 
year the election was naturally less important than a 
senatorial or presidential contest and consequently fewer 
votes were cast. But it is interesting to note that the loss 
was in anti-administration votes ; opposition to special issues 
evidently did not mean opposition to the administration; 
moreover no campaign could prove that the President was 
inefficient. The votes cast were as follows : 

1863 1862 1861 

Republican 70,483 80,835 65,261 

Democrat 29,207 52,587 31,266 

Scattering 77 796 

iRepublican majority 4i,i99 28,248 33,i99 

Totals 99.767 133,422 97.323 

' Andrew MSS. John A. Andrew protested to Gen. J. A. Dix, com- 
manding Department of the East, against the removal of Cabot's Heavy 
Artillery — one reason given was the danger of riot in Boston and the 



329] '^^^ ^^^^ "^^^ FALL OF COPPERHEADISM 133 

Turning these into percentages we note that the Democratic 
vote had fallen to 29 per cent in comparison with 39 per 
cent in 1862 and 33 per cent in 1861.^ 

The campaign is interesting because the issues of the 
future become apparent. The principal planks of the plat- 
forms, however, referred to the issues of the current year. 
The Republican platform, for example, pledged " unwaver- 
ing and unconditional support to the national government " ; 
it spoke of the contest " between slavery and liberty ", and 
approved the Emancipation Proclamation as a measure of 
military necessity and " as a guaranty to the world that the 
contest is for civilization and Christianity." This posi- 
tion was a great advance on that of i860. It was then 
held by a few; in 1863 it had the support of the majority. 
The Republican platform also expressed confidence that 
no rights nor personal freedom would be destroyed ; it de- 
precated the idea that permanent peace could be built up 
while slavery existed ; Republicans would therefore treat as 
enemies those who would make peace with rebels on any 
terms short of submission to national authority and the 
suppression of their pretended confederacy. To that end 
they approved the use of colored soldiers on the basis of 
perfect equality as to rights and compensations. - 

The Democrats, in turn, were no less bold : " The Gov- 
ernment sustained but the administration censured " were 
the head lines in the Post. Judge Abbott said they were to 
inaugurate " a movement ... to bring together and unite 
all the opposition to the unconstitutional acts of the party 
in power " which should result a year hence in sweeping that 
party into oblivion.^ To that end they said it was " the 

surrounding cities in case of a draft, April 22, 1864. He also ordered 
Lieutenant-Colonel Holmes to hold himself " ready for street work in 
case of a draft." 

^ Cf. graph, appendix i. ''Advertiser, Sept. 25, 1863. 

» Post, Sept. 4, 1863. ' 



134 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [330 

duty of every citizen to sustain the National Government "; 
they also stated that the paramount objects of the Democ- 
racy were " to restore the union as it was, and to maintain 
and abide by the Federal Constitution." Therefore they 
were opposed to the doctrine of secession, to all interference 
on the part of the National Government with local and do- 
mestic affairs in the several States, to the exercise of any 
implied powers by any department of government, to ef- 
forts to continue the civil war for purposes of subjugation 
or emancipation, and to the extension of martial law over 
states not in rebellion. They also argued, and thus in- 
troduced the issues of the future : 

that as our Union is composed of independent sovereign 
states, no one of which has yet been wrested from the Union 
by force of arms, we look with abhorrence on the proposition 
of leading Republicans to thrust any state out of the Union, 
under pretense that by the rebellion of any part, or the whole 
of the citizens of any State, such State has ceased to form 
an integral part of the Union. That whenever any state shall 
lay down its arms and submit to the laws and the constituted 
authorities, the people thereof be entitled to resume and enjoy 
all the rights and privileges given by the laws and Constitution 
to the citizens of the several states.^ 

Dr. Loring, in particular, laid stress on the new issue; ad- 
dressing the convention he said the Democrats had wanted 
to go into this campaign with the declaration that 

when a sovereign state which has withdrawn from this Union, 
whether by Convention or by sending her Representatives to 
Congress again shall determine to return to it, the doors shall 
be thrown open and she shall be welcomed back once more. 
. . . You may feel wronged at the outrages the Administra- 
tion has committed, but those are things that pass away as the 

* Post, Sept. 4, 1863 ; Courier, Sept. 4, 1863. 



-531] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEADISM 135 

administration goes on, as mud thrown from the wheels, but 
there remains that great principle without which Massachu- 
setts is not safe, and Maine is not safe, and that is that they 
are still free and independent states under the Constitution.^ 

This primary Democratic doctrine of state rights, how- 
ever, was not the issue of the day. Neither was the de- 
tailed attack upon the administration policy to succeed, for 
men such as Richard Henry Dana, Jr., who opposed Sumner 
and his theories, stood by the administration ; in fact in his 
Cambridge speech of October 5 Dana said: 

The questions and means and final settlements, and the doc- 
trines on which they rest, should be matters of reflection and 
study, — to some extent public discussion, but not made in ad- 
vance conditions of loyal cooperation. . . . While the war 
lasts, let us have, if it be possible, one heart, one voice, and 
one hand.' 

Thus the issue in 1863 was the preservation of the Union 
by the policy of the administration. The will of the people 
sustained it. 

The next issue, that of 1864, was peace — by compromise 
under a new administration or by military success under 
the present regime. 

To be sure peace men had existed from the beginning: 
in the winter of 1861 they had been insistent on participa- 
tion in the Virginia Peace Conference, and as soon as the 
outburst of passion which followed the firing upon Sumter 
and the attack upon the Sixth had subsided, the deniand for 
compromise could be heard from time to time until in 
December, 1862, Ralph Waldo Emerson, writing to Thomas 
Carlyle, conditioned his hopes thus : " If we can stave off the 

* Post, Sept. 4, 1863. 

' Advertiser, Oct. 6, 1863. 



136 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [332 

fury of trade which makes peace at the cost of replacing 
the South in the status quo ante helium." ^ The follow- 
ing month (January, 1863), the editor of the Boston 
Journal thought things looked gloomy and spoke of " the 
peace schemes of the Northern traitors and submission- 
ists " ; and in the summer of the same year even the con- 
servative Newburyport Herald took occasion to exhort men 
to support the government, making the best of what w^as 
unavoidable.^ The New England Loyal Publication So- 
ciety had perceived that the tendency to make any possible 
peace was at work. It issued broadsides written by Charles 
Eliot Norton : one to show that the " Peace-at-any-price 
men " encouraged the rebels in the belief that their course 
was not utterly hopeless and thus were lengthening the 
war ; ^ the other argued that any peace would be a con- 
fession of national defeat. For the national authorities 
had no power to treat with the rebels, who had no character 
which could enable them to become parties to a treaty of 
peace. In brief he said, " We have nothing to ask, the 
rebels nothing to give but submission." * 

But in spite of all argument the demands for peace and 
criticisms of Lincoln grew louder and louder. Drafting, 
repeated military defeats, heavy taxes and high prices, all 
increased the general desire for a respite. This desire be- 
came formidable in 1864. There were " Political Peace 
Putterings at Niagara Falls ", and finally the Democrats 
in Massachusetts resolved that " justice, humanity, liberty 
and public welfare, demand that immediate efforts be made 

' Correspondence, vol. ii, p. 281. 

- June 13, 1863. 

' Broadside no. 71 (May 29, 1863). The same argtiment was pub- 
lished in the Advertiser on August 22, 1864; also Bancroft MSS, John 
Murray Forbes to George Bancroft, Sept. 7, 1864. 

* Broadside, no. 66. 



333] ^^^ ^^^^ "^^D P^^^ OF COPPERHEADISM 137 

for a cessation of hostilities/ When the national platform 
was ratified in Faneuil Hall, the Hon. J. G. Abbott made 
an appeal to the motive of personal comfort. " The re- 
election of Lincoln ", he declared, 

means war for the next four years. It means drafts, drafts, 
drafts till there is nothing more to be drawn. It means debt 
that is threatening us every day with national bankruptcy. It 
means starvation prices. It means grinding and vexatious 
taxation, so that a man, from the time he is born into the 
world can do nothing — can't get married and can't even die 
— without being taxed.^ 

The meeting accordingly resolved that the administration 
of Lincoln had failed, and that the great purpose of the 
Democracy would be to restore and maintain the Union, to 
reestablish the Constitution and the laws and to obtain an 
honorable peace. On September 21 the state convention 
passed bold resolutions claiming that the only chance for 
the securing of an honorable peace " was by expelling from 
power the present corrupt, imbecile and revolutionary ad- 
ministration " and returning " to the policy to which the 
Executive, Congress, and the People were solemnly pledged 
in the Crittenden resolutions, cooperative movements to- 
ward Peace and Union." ^ 

Unquestionably the popular will was then truly set forth 
by Amos A. Lawrence ; to Robert M. Mason he wrote : 

' Springfield Republican, Aug. 31, 1864. 

^ Sept. 17, 1864; Post (supplement), Sept. 19, 1864. 

' Post, Sept. 22, 1864. The nominees for electors-at-large were chosen, 
Robert C. Winthrop and Erasmus Beach. The latter, the Democratic 
nominee for governor in i860, is an example of the persistent Demo- 
crat, while Robert C. Winthrop is representative of the conservative 
who failed to perceive the trend of the times. Cf. supra, ch. iv, p. 106 
and chart, supra, p. 109. 



138 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [334 

From present appearances we must have peace before many 
months, either by the defeat of the rebel armies, or by the will 
of the people of both sections; for there is no doubt that 
the people, the working men and women, want peace : and 
the government cannot long refuse to reflect the will of the 
people.^ 

There is, in fact, no doubt that discouragement because of 
lack of success in battle, criticism of the Executive, and the 
desire for personal comfort, were all adding many to the 
Democratic ranks. It could scarcely be otherwise when 
even loyal Republicans such as Forbes and Andrew had 
questioned the wisdom of the administration." They, how- 
ever, were confident of Lincoln's popularity with the people. 
And, in truth, this confidence was merited; for, when vic- 
tories in the field came to lessen the discouragement, the 
people did hope for peace without compromise,^ and did 
support the administration loyally. 

In the meanw^hile notwithstanding discouragement and 
questionings the Republicans, in convention on September 
15, answered with assurance the increasing demands for 
peace. They enunciated again the duty of every citizen 
" to maintain the integrity of the Union, the supremacy of 
the National Government and the paramount authority of 
the national constitution " ; they upheld the " acts and 
proclamations by which the government, in self-defense, 
and in wise zeal to save the Union, has sought to destroy 
slavery and make the nation all free "; they sustained '' the 
National Government in its determination not to recognize 
the Confederate rebel leaders as a political power ", and 

' Lawrence MSS, Sept. 4, 1864. 

' Forbes, Letters and Recollections, vol. ii, p. 89 (.April 28 [1864]), 
and Pearson, Life of Andrew, vol. ii, p. 163. 
' Ibid., Sept. 13, 1864. 



335] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEADISM 139 

called upon the national administration to maintain their 
position that " no compromise can be made with rebels that 
is not based upon their unconditional surrender to the au- 
thority of the National Government and their return to 
allegiance to the Constitution and the laws of the United 
States." ' 

With this platform the Republicans, or better the party 
of the administration, gained allies from various quarters. 
For example the vice-presidents of the ratification meeting 
of September 28 included Josiah Quincy, Amos A. Law- 
rence — Union men, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Martin 
Brimmer, J. Ingersoll Bowditch and Henry I. Bowditch, 
of the anti-slavery group. Moreover the Abolitionists openly 
joined the Republicans, whose platform was now suffi- 
ciently outspoken in its anti-slavery demands to satisfy even 
those who had aided in the nomination of Fremont at 
Cleveland. Indeed Garrison regretted that Phillips would 
not alter his opposition to Lincoln.^ As always Phillips 
had a few followers, but the rank and file supported Lincoln. 
Lydia Maria Child undoubtedly voiced their position when 
she said : 

I suppose, taking all things into consideration, we can have no 
better president than " honest Abe ", with his slow mind and 
legal conscience forever pottering about details and calculat- 
ing chances. I believe he deserves the universally conceded 
epithet of " honest ", and I think he sincerely wishes to have 
Slavery swept completely away. But he obviously lacks sym- 
pathy for the wrongs and sufferings of the colored race ; and, 
religious-minded as he seems to be, his fear of God is un- 
fortunately secondary to his fear of the Democratic Party. 

* Advertiser, Sept. 16, 1864. 

^ Garrison MSS, to Samuel May, Jr., 1864. The Anti-slavery Stand- 
ard and the Liberator both supported Lincoln. 



140 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [3-^6 

Still, I wish him to be reelected. . . . As for Fremont I have 
long feared that he was a selfish, unprincipled adventurer.^ 

In the end Lincoln was elected because the people be- 
lieved in him ; - his election was their voice, not that of 
the politicians. After his nomination the Republican had 
explained at length : 

The people believe that Mr. Lincoln is honest, that he deals 
with all public questions on their merits, that he has no purely 
selfish ends to serve, that he is in earnest, that he is no rider 
of mere hobbies, that he believes in the people and tries to 
execute their will, that his morals are pure, that he is in the 
hands of no man and no cabal, and that he has in him the power 
to reconcile more jarring interests and antagonistic wills than 
any other man. . . . The people have identified Mr. Lincoln 
with the financial welfare of the country. . . . The present 
standing of the national credit rests upon the policy of crush- 
ing the military power of the rebellion, and putting it beyond 
the voice of its leaders to dictate settlement. The money 
power is greater at this time than it has ever been before — 
greater and more widely diffused among the people. The gov- 
ernment money is in every man's hand and government bonds 
are universally held by the thrifty people of the country. It 
is beyond dispute that the money power of the country is 
pleased with this selection.^ 

Lowell was right when he observed, " The mercantile classes 
are longing for peace, but I believe the people are more 
firm than ever." "* 

* Sumner MSS, July 31, 1864. 

'Ibid., from C. E. Norton, April 29, 1864: "Lincoln's popularity is 
very great, far greater with the mass of the people than some of our 
politicians seem to suppose." This is likewise the testimony of F. B. 
Sanborn and the contemporary comment of the Advertiser, Jime 9, 1864, 

' June 13, 1864. 

* Letters, vol. i, p. 336, to J. L. Motley, July 28, 1864. 



337] THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERHEADISM 141 

The strength of McClellan had been lessened appreciably 
by his letter of acceptance. It was, of course, extravagantly 
praised by the partisan papers supporting him/ Never- 
theless the soldiers, with whom he was personally popular, 
felt that although it was patriotic and would have suited if 
he had refused the nomination, yet when he concluded by 
saying he thought his views expressed those of the con- 
vention, he changed " from a big honest straightforward 
soldier, into a politician seeking office." ^ Although a 
McClellan meeting, in Boston, proclaimed that the gen- 
eral's merit was that of the founders of the government, 
" conciliation and compromise," " this did not suffice. Men 
had in fact come to believe that circumstances had changed 
and that what was at first a struggle to maintain the out- 
ward form of our government, had become a contest to 
preserve the life and assert the supreme will of the nation; 
that it was not against the constitution alone that the rebels 
declared war, but against free institutions. This John 
Murray Forbes evidently had in mind when he wrote F. P. 
Blair : 

Mr. Lincoln must not depend upon the rich and aristocratic 
classes, nor upon the city people ; he must appeal to the hard- 
handed people of the country, upon a plain, square issue, 
which they can understand. . . . On the other side, the aris- 
tocratic party have an immense bribe held out to them in the 
control of the government for four years, and the opportun- 
ity it would give them to change our form of government into 
a permanent oligarchy.* 

' Courier, Sept. 10, 1864; Post, Sept, 10, 1864. 

* C. F. Morse, Letters, p. 191 ; also the testimony of Dr. Samuel A. 
Green, who was then in the army. 

' Courier, Nov. 7, 1864. 

* Forbes, Letters {Supplementary) , vol. ii, p. 288, Sept. 18, 1864. C. E, 



142 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [338 

Similarly Edward Everett said : '' We are now called upon 
to overthrow the administration, and restore the Democracy, 
in the vain hope of bringing the men who, for selfish and 
ambitious purposes, have waged the war back to the Union 
which they tell us they loathe, by new guarantees and further 
compromises." ^ 

The issue was really union, not the Union as it was but 
a new union, which could be realized not by peace through 
compromise but by peace through the policy of the ad- 
ministration. Declarations such as that of Jefferson Davis 
quoted by Edward Everett, " We are not fighting for slav- 
ery, we are fighting for independence, and that or extermin- 
ation we will have",* convinced some; but military victory 
encouraged the people generally, and the administration 
was sustained by a strong majority. They gave 126,742 
votes to Lincoln and only a third as many or 48,745 to 
McClellan. The opposition had been bolder and more out- 
spoken than ever. McClellan had even carried some towns, 
but the proportion of the total vote for the anti-adminis- 
tration party was smaller than ever; this year it was (in 
round numbers) but 28 per cent in comparison to 2»Z P^'* 
cent, 39 per cent and 29 per cent in 1861, 1862, and 1863 
respectively.^ 

When the result was known Governor Andrew com- 

Norton had the same idea; he wrote G. W. Curtis on June 24, 1864: 
"The war is a struggle of anti-democrats with the democrats; of the 
maintenance of the privilege of a class with the maintenance of the 
common rights of man." Ibid., vol. i, p. 269. 

' Everett, Works, vol. iv, p. 724. He added : " They have decided the 
course which I have felt it my duty to take." In 1862 he had described 
his political position to George Bancroft, calling it " unsatisfactory 
neutrality." {Bancroft MSS, Oct. 27, 1862.) 

* Advertiser, Oct. 20, 1864. Everett to the Union meeting, Charles G. 
Loring presiding, Faneuil Hall, Oct. 19. 

* Cf. graph, appendix i. 



339] -^^^ ^^^^ "^^^ FALL OF COPPERHEADISM 143 

mented, " We have knocked down and stamped out the last 
Copperhead ghost in Massachusetts." ^ And this was ap- 
parently true; for when the election was over the friends 
of the general (with the exception of the Courier) ac- 
quiesced in the decision and determined " to settle down 
to the ordinary pursuits of life, giving the administration 
for the next four years all the support it can ask for in its 
endeavors for the integrity of the constitution, the preserva- 
tion of the Union, and the restoration of peace in the land." " 
Such passive acquiescence continued to be the general atti- 
tude ^ from the election to the assassination ; in fact active 
opposition had failed by the will of the people, and events 
moving rapidly in the field tended to restore confidence. 
Though not all were enthusiastic in their praise of the 
message to Congress in December, there had been no violent 
criticism; and finally on February 13, 1865, even the Demo- 
cratic Post gave up the peace plank it had so fervently advo- 
cated four months before. It admitted : " The tone of the 
Rebel press and of Mr. Davis's speech at Richmond, now 
is as fierce and uncompromising as it ever was ; and there is 
a renewal of the old vows as to dying a thousand deaths 
rather than give up the independence of the confederacy." * 
It is thus very evident that time and circumstance had weak- 
ened copperheadism. 

* Pearson, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 176. Emerson also said: "The people 
have this autumn expressed their decision that the nation shall be a 
nation." 

* Pilot, Nov. 12, 1864; also Post, Nov. 9, 1864. 

' There was, however, from time to time moderate criticism even by 
friends of the administration. E. g., Andrew wrote Forbes in the 
winter of 1865 : " I think that the administration lacks coherence, 
method, purpose, and consistency; not in the sense which impugns its 
patriotism, or its philanthropic will either, but in a sense which affects 
its intelHgent unity of purpose." Forbes, Recollectons, vol. ii, p. 122. 

* Post, Feb. 13, 1865. 



144 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [340 

The assassination of Lincoln removed every trace of it. 
All factions forgot their differences and, as at the firing on 
Fort Sumter, there was again a united people; real patriot- 
ism was not lacking in the hour of need. Each faction 
seemed to outdo every other in appreciation of the great 
man. Remembering that the Abolitionists had called him 
" a man of very small calibre ",^ it is interesting to read the 
Liberator : - 

No President in our day had so thoroughly, or in so large 
and wise a sense identified himself with the people, sought 
to strengthen and build up the powers of the people, sought to 
give expression in his official acts to their deliberate purpose 
and known will, and to develop their best interests, as Abraham 
Lincoln. The people everywhere understood him, and felt 
sure of him. They felt that he was thinking, planning and 
working, with a sincere desire to promote the high and noble 
ends for which the republic was created, and they had given 
him their confidence, their respect, aye, and their love, as to 
no predecessor whom they have ever known. 

Even the Post, while enumerating his simple good qualities, 
faithfulness, honesty and patriotism, conceded, " He must 
have possessed a superior faculty for moulding and ruling 
men "; they also transformed what to some had been faults 
into probable virtues, saying, " It is probable that much of 
his success as the Executive Head of the Nation resulted 
from his apparent easiness of disposition.^ 

Of course such men as Andrew immediately forgot their 
minor differences with the administration, and praised the 
ruler than whom in all human history there was none 
" more just, unselfish or unresentful." * And such men as 

* Cf. supra, p. 113. - April 21. 1865. 

* May 4, 1865. 

* Pearson, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 245, note 2. 



341 1 THE RISE AND FALL OF COPPERIIEADISM 145 

Edward Everett Hale were willing to acknowledge their 
previous misjudgment; Hale, in fact, wrote Charles Sumner: 
" I feel as if I ought to apologize to you personally for 
hard things I have said of Mr. Lincoln to you when you 
must have known so well what he was and what he was 
doing." ^ And finally even Robert C. Winthrop, who had 
remained determinedly anti-Republican, wrote his friend 
J. P. Kennedy : " I have no words to express my horror, 
and my real grief for the death of the President. He had 
won upon me greatly during the last few months and I had 
begun to like him." ^ Moreover this last prominent rep- 
resentative of the old " Cotton Whigs " gave the following 
eulogy : 

The cheerful courage, the shrewd sagacity, the earnest zeal, 
the imperturbable good-nature, the untiring fidelity to duty, 
the ardent devotion to the Union, the firm reliance upon God, 
which he has displayed during his whole administration; and 
the eminent moderation and magnanimity, both toward politi- 
cal opponents and public enemies, which he has manifested 
since his recent and triumphal reelection, have won for him a 
measure of regard, of respect, and of affection, such as no 
other man of our age has ever enjoyed.' 

Among the common people there was deep, sincere grief. 
If perchance here and there individuals were not likewise 
sorrowful those individuals expressed publicly their alle^ 
giance or left the neighborhood."* Thus in the national 

' Sumner MSS, May i, 1865. 

' Winthrop MSS, April 21, 1865. 

^ Winthrop, Speeches, vol. ii, p. 662, before the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society, April 20, 1865. 

* One man, for instance, was tarred and feathered and compelled to 
carry the Stars-and-Stripes through the streets of Swampscott. Fin- 
ally, having cheered the flag, he was allowed to go home on condition 
of keeping the flag at half-mast for thirty days. At Fall River the 



146 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [342 

disaster every vestige of copperhcadism was lost, and a 
united people were ready to support the nev^ president and 
undertake the new problems. 

people compelled a liquor dealer to do the same. (Life of Bowditch, 
vol. ii, p. 50.) In Danvers a crowd gathered at Goodale's shoe factory. 
Goodale had had a political altercation with some neighbors, and on 
reaching his office had refused to allow the factory girls to replace at 
his window the Hag, which they had bound with crape. The mob with 
the pot of tar insisted, and moreover he saluted that flag. (Told by 
Miss Harriet Goodale.) 



CHAPTER VI 
Part I 

RECONSTRUCTION THEORIES AND POLICIES 

Professor Dunning, in his Essays on the Civil War and 
Reconstruction, analyzes the theories bearing upon recon- 
struction that became prominent in Congress after 1863.^ 
He distinguishes five, which may be grouped thus: first, 
those recognizing the existence of the state which had at- 
tempted secession, — the Southern and Presidential theories; 
second, those denying the existence of the state, — Sumner's 
state suicide and Stevens' conquered province theories ; and 
third, the forfeited rights theory of Congressional re- 
construction. 

It might be natural to suppose, from the fact that Massa- 
chusetts supported Congressional reconstruction in the elec- 
tions of the late sixties, that Sumner's theory was the will 
of Massachusetts or that it was immediately accepted by 
the people of the state; but such was not the case. If he 
was ahead of his party when he advocated emancipation in 
the state convention of 1861, he was at variance with it 
when he declared that secession sustained by force " be- 
comes a practical abdication by the state of all rights under 
the constitution, while the treason it involves works instant 
forfeiture of all functions and powers essential to the con- 
tinued existence of the State as a body politic ", and there- 
fore Congress should "assume complete jurisdiction of such 
vacated territory " and should proceed to establish therein 

' Pp. 99 et seq. 
343] 147 



148 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [344 

republican forms of government.^ He argiied, of course, 
that slavery, a local institution without origin in the Con- 
stitution or in natural right, had ceased to exist when the 
state ceased to exist. It is evident that his reconstruction 
theory was but a means to the realization of his all-absorbing 
ideal, but it is very clear that his ideal was not the goal for 
which the people of Massachusetts were fighting;^ more- 
over his method was totally at variance with all their rea- 
soning. In fact Republican as well as Democrat — Adver- 
tiser and Courier, Hampshire Gazette and Newburyport 
Herald — all argued with the Springfield Republican and the 
Boston Post that " the Constitution of the United .States 
does not recognize secession as a legal act in any way; there- 
fore the state is not out of the Union ". The Northern 
states were at war to convince the states of the Confederacy 
that they could not legally withdraw; if the North ac- 
cepted the position of Sumner it conceded to the rebels 
all that they asked, namely, the right of secession; and to 
conquer the Southern states conceding the very principle 
for which these men were contending, would involve a 
gross inconsistency.^ 

The Democrats, however, made the constitutional basis 
of the Union an issue, resolving in 1863, " That as 
our Union is composed of independent sovereign states, no 

^ Cong. Globe, 37 cong., 2 sess., pt. i, pp. 73^-737 (Feb. 11, 1862); 
Sumner, Works, vol. vi, pp. 301-305; Pierce, Sumner, vol. iv, p. 73. 

' Cf. supra, ch. iii. 

' Springfield Republican, Feb. 25, March 21, June 18, 1862; likewise 
Courier, Mar. 3, 1862, Pilot, Sept. 17, 1864, Post, May 22, 1862, Aug. 25, 
1863, June I, 1864; also various pamphlets: William B. Greene, Sov- 
ereignty of the People, pp. 23-24; and Joel Parker, Status of the South- 
ern States, p. 59, Revolution and Reconstruction, pp. 39, 61, 64, and 
Constitutional Law with Reference to the Present Condition of the 
United States, pp. 23-27. The last was also printed in North American 
Revietv, April, 1862. 



345] RECONSTRUCTION— THEORIES AND POLICIES 149 

one of which has yet been wrested from the Union by 
force of arms, we look with abhorrence on the proposition 
to thrust any state out of the Union under pretence that by 
the rebelhon of any part of the citizens of any state, such 
state has ceased to form an integral part of the Union." 
Therefore, since the paramount object of Democracy was 
to restore the Union as it was, they condemned the effort 
on the part of the administration " to continue the present 
deplorable civil war for the purposes of subjugation or 
emancipation." ^ 

The Republicans, notwithstanding, refused to take issue. 
Even in 1865 they held to their war theory concerning the 
relation of the states to the Union. For example, on Jan- 
uary 24 the Hampshire Gazette said : 

When the rebellion ceases, those states will be as much mem- 
bers of the Union, as they ever were, and when they acknowl- 
edge their allegiance to the general government and send sena- 
tors and representatives to Congress, they will be again in the 
position in which they were before the rebellion. Pass the 
constitutional amendment and that will control slavery and 
when the rebels cease fighting the Union will be virtually 
restored. 

Thus the principle of the Southern theory, that " the war 
had been waged by the North for the avowed purpose of 
suppressing an insurrection of individuals, and with no idea 
of interfering with the rights of the states " " (not the 

^ Post and Courier, Sept. 4, 1863; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1863, p. 625. 
Also r/. supra, ch. v. 

* Dunning, Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction, p. 102. It is 
interesting to compare this with the Springfield Republican for April 
12, 1865 : " We stand again on solid ground ; the rebel is a citizen of 
the United States, to be forgiven and restored if he repents — to be 
excluded from all rights of citizenship if he continues obdurate. . . . 
The rebel state is a state of the Union, to be recovered from disloyal 
and placed in loyal hands." 



150 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [346 

theory of state suicide or conquered territory), was the 
principle held in Massachusetts in 1865. 

Yet Presidential reconstruction based on the same theory 
— the existence of the states and the rebellion of citizens — 
was not unquestioningly supported. The Republican ob- 
jected because, since it believed that secession was not and 
could not be a fact, it held that neither the President nor 
Congress had any authority under the Constitution to pro- 
pose terms of re-admission, for there was no such pre- 
scribed right anywhere, strictly speaking, and " the only 
legitimate reconstruction must originate with the loyal 
people of the states, acting freely and of their own motion 
under the state Constitutions." ^ The Democrats imme- 
diately raised the same objection, the Courier arguing that 
if the plan was applied in the South it might equally be 
applied in the North, and if allowed, would destroy the 
very germ of American liberty.^ But by May, 1865, the 
Post, in its loyalty to Johnson, expressed satisfaction in 
his plan for future reorganization and belief that the gov- 
ernment would be republican in spirit as well as in form if 
the President adhered to the standard of state rights.^ 
Others continued to question the power of the President, 

^ April 27, 1864. In this connection a letter of Charles Francis Adams 
to Richard H. Dana, Jr., is most interesting. (C/. supra, ch. ii, pp. 49- 
51, for position of Adams, i860.) On April 19, 1865, Adams wrote: 
" It is only as the commander of the armies of the United States that 
Mr. Lincoln has the means of doing those things necessary to reestab- 
lish order in regions where it has been violently overturned. He can- 
not meddle with a state as such nor prescribe any permanent form of 
government for it. But he may exercise an authority which will en- 
able the citizens of the State to reestablish the system which has been 
subverted for the moment. After this is once done his power ceases 
and the machine returns to its original movements." Adams, Dana, 
vol. ii, p. 331. 

' Courier, Dec. 29, and Post, Dec. 12, 1863. 

' May 29, 1865. 



347] RECONSTRUCTION— THEORIES AND POLICIES 151 

believing .that Congress should take the initiative in such 
work as this and that the President should cooperate with 
the legislative branch of the government/ The radicals 
objected to the Presidential theory because it did not appear 
that universal suffrage would be accomplished by it.^ There 
were, of course, those who in their loyalty to the adminis- 
tration said : " Now that the proclamation of amnesty is 
issued we must stand by it, no matter whether we think it 
ill-advised or not." ^ They felt satisfied, however, that it 
was not based upon the state-suicide theory but upon the 
principle that " loyal state governments " had been sub- 
verted and that the states themselves still existed and might 
resume their active functions whenever enough of the loyal 
were collected to set on foot in good faith a state govern- 
ment* Thus, except for the radical reformers, both oppo- 
nents and supporters of the presidential policy consistently 
adhered to one theory, — that the state could not and did 
not secede, and that restoration was the work of loyal 
citizens. 

The radicals opposing amnesty were the champions of 
Sumner's theory; anti-slavery men, jealous for the f reed- 
man, desired guaranteees for his personal, civil and poli- 
tical rights. Among these were Wendell Phillips, Whittier, 
Boutwell and Forbes, representative of Abolitionists and 
anti-slavery Republicans, extreme and conservative. De- 
fense of the principle of Sumner's and Stevens' theories 

^ Commonwealth, Dec. 11, 1863. Loring, Reconstruction, a pamphlet 
published 1866, furnishes an able defense of Congressional reconstruc- 
tion. It argues the law or the circumstances, not the necessity of the 
case. 

^ Springfield Republican, May 18, 1864, criticizing Phillips' position. 

* For example, the Advertiser, Dec. 15, 1863, and Worcester Spy, Oct. 
19, 1863. 

* Advertiser, Dec. 10, 1863. 



1^2 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [348 

that the slave states were merely men and territory and 
that rebellion had crushed all civil forms, is found only 
in the Liberator, the Conwiomuealth and the Spy, organs 
of these factions, and in speeches and letters of their lead- 
ing representatives. Boutwell for example argued : 

It is useless to say that the people of a State cannot destroy the 
State, because they have no legal right so to do. It is not a 
question of legal right : it is a question of fact. ... By force 
of arms we have destroyed the South Carolina of the so-called 
Confederate States and the old state of South Carolina has not 
been reproduced ; therefore there is no State of South Carolina 
as a political organization. . . . The result is. . . . South 
Carolina is a blank piece of paper on which may be written a 
new form of government.^ 

He, however, would endorse the new government made by 
the people of South Carolina with the consent of Congress; 
but the Commonwealth and Sumner, the Liberator and 
Wendell Phillips argued for confiscation, declaring: 

In all the history of the world governments have been admin- 
istered by those who owned or who had the right to own the 
soil. This right had been kept jealously exclusive by the lords 
of the South, for well they knew that if they relinquished 
it, their power was broken. And now just so soon as we al- 
low the same class to recover possession of their lands, the 
same process will be repeated ; the poor whites and, of course, 
the poor blacks, will be excluded from the ownership of the 
soil ; the same oligarchy will recover the control of these states, 
and though we hope the rehabilitation of slavery is impossible, 
yet the process of pacification will be retarded years, perhaps 
generations.^ 

Even the non-extremist Forbes said he fully expected to 

^ Boutwell, Speeches, pp. 380-386. 
' Commonwealth, Jan. 8, 1864. 



349] RECONSTRUCTION— THEORIES AND POLICIES 153 

see the next movement of slave holders looking to recon- 
struction under state rights, take such direction as would 
"let them (the Southerners) establish peonage or appren- 
ticeship, or something not called slavery, but really the 
same old Satan. To avoid this ", he added, 

we want some law confiscating all the property of those actu- 
ally serving in the Rebellion, but giving the President, or 
Commission, power to remit it for those who can prove they 
only helped the Rebellion under coercion, also to remit it in 
favor of all who owned less than 180 acres of farming land.^ 

The ultra radical was intent upon two policies : punish- 
ment by banishment and confiscation ; and the constructive 
scheme of colonization by loyal Northerners equipped with 
seeds, ploughshares and sewing machines, and establishing 
free labor, schools and town meetings.^ The punitive note, 
though at times insistent, was not continually sounded ; in 
fact Sumner's purpose in confiscation was to insure eman- 
cipation and break up large estates in order to secure homes 
for the colored people, rather than to humiliate the South. ^ 

Finally, when military campaigns were ended and recon- 
struction was the business in hand, it ceased to be a theoreti- 
cal problem and became a practical issue. The forebod- 
ings of Forbes, amply justified by subsecfuent events, be- 
came widespread. New " black codes " limiting the free- 
dom of the negro, aroused apprehension lest the results, so 
dearly bought, should be snatched away; * therefore, it was 

' Forbes, Letters i Supplementary), vol. ii, p. 339, to Captain E. B. 
Ward, Dec. 29, 1864; also vol. iii, pp. 43-45, to an Editor, Aug. 6, 1865. 

* Wendell Phillips at Cooper Institute, Liberator, Jan. 30, 1863 ; at 
the Anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Liberator, May 
19, 1865; Worcester Spy, April 25, 1865. 

* Cong. Globe, 40 cong., 2 sess., p. 3247 (June 18, 1868) ; also Spring- 
field Republican, July i, 1865. 

* Winthrop wrote J. P. Kennedy, July 9, 1865 : " Our New England 



154 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [350 

argued, " It is our right and duty to secure whatever the 
pubHc safety and the pubHc faith require." ^ Moreover this 
idea soon became embcxlied in resolutions of the legislature, 
insisting, with an emphasis which the castly sacrifice of the 
lives of her heroes and the lavish expenditures of her means 
entitled Massachusetts to use, that everything should now 
be done to secure in peace the fruits of war. 

And many who would preserve the fruits of victory 
came to believe in negro suffrage as a means. ^ " Give the 
black the ballot and he can protect himself, or if not, we 
shall have done the best we can to protect him," ^ was one 
type of argument. The theory was that freedmen made 
so by the fundamental law of the land would not long re- 
main bereft of the rights of freemen. For " to suppose 
that the emancipated blacks of the South would not be 
allowed the right of suffrage was to disbelieve the honesty 
and deny the truth of our Republican institutions." "* Of 

people are full of apprehension that the Union is to be restored too 
soon, and that the Southern States are about to reorganize themselves 
upon their old principles." And Boutwell (Speeches, p. 544) said the 
spirit of slavery is not destroyed, and if the old local power is re- 
stored, in some form they will continue oppression of the class re- 
cently in servitude. Also, Life of Garrison, vol. iv, p. 94; Liberator, 
Aug. 25, 1865; Advertiser, May 30, 1865, Jan. 18, 1866; Post, May 3, 
1866. 

' Especially by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., in the Faneuil Hall meeting, 
June 21, 1865; Adams, Dana, vol. ii, p. 2ZZ- Also Advertiser, Jan. 18, 
1866. 

" Indeed such had become the opinion of the legislature in its reso- 
lutions of 1868: "We recognize impartial suffrage in the rebel states 
as an indispensable condition of permanent pacification." Am. Annual 
Cyclop., p. 458. 

' Forbes, Letters (Supplementary) , vol. iii, p. 45, to an Editor, Aug. 
6, 1865. He also said in the same letter: "I would sooner trust the 
most ignorant and brutal men to vote for themselves, rather than a 
self-styled superior class to vote for them." 

* So argued the Hampshire Gazette, c. g.. May 23, 1865, as had the 
Worcester Spy as early as Aug. 31, 1863. 



35 1 ] RECONSTRUCTION— THEORIES AND POLICIES 155 

course they confidently believed that the negro would vote 
on the side of freedom and would be an ally sufficient 
"to preserve our Union and our freedom from foes without 
as well as foes within." 

But before 1866 many of those who granted the justice 
of the abstract theory felt that making immediate voters 
of the f reedmen was both absurd and dangerous ; that they 
needed the discipline of a steady rise to citizenship, a pro- 
bation similar to that of the intelligent foreigners who 
have emigrated thither.^ Even loyal friends of the negro, 
such as Parker Pillsbury, for a time believed voters " should 
know the difference between the almanac and the Declara- 
tion of Independence." ^ The more visionary champions 
of the negro, although favoring education by all practical 
means, were convinced that the exercise of political rights 
would most effectively accomplish this end ; ^ and while 
conservatives saw the danger in aligning race against race, 
whites against blacks,* yet in time the practical difficulties 
of the problem drove the party to follow its leaders and 
champion the cause of the visionaries. ° Thus the question 
of what to do with the negro, which at the beginning was 
separate from the question of the status of the states,® be- 

' Springfield Republican, May 18, 1864; Advertiser, July 16, 1866. 
^ Sumner MSS, from P. Pillsbury, July 3, 1864. 

' Sanborn, Howe, p. 290. Undoubtedly the view of Sanborn as well 
as Howe. 

* E. g., the Advertiser, Aug. 8, 1865. 

* " The collision between Johnson and Congress has settled the fate 
of a good many projects, i. e., the theory of making education the uni- 
versal test of qualification for the suffrage, and universal civil equality. 
They must be laid aside. . . . The question now is what is the best 
solution to be had, not what is that which we most desire." Adver- 
tiser, Feb. 27, 1866. 

® There was occasional vain hope that the negro question would settle 
itself. Colonization, discussed from time to time, was given up; sep- 



1^6 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [332 

came, owing to circumstances, not only associated with the 
original question but incident to its solution ; the Republican 
platform of Massachusetts in 1866 demanded Congressional 
reconstruction and impartial suffrage. 

In 1865 the Republicans had stood for the Thirteenth 
Amendment, and expressed the universal loyalty to John- 
son which supported his accession to office. They claimed 
to have no theories to promulgate in relation to the right 
of suffrage, but protested against admitting to the franchise 
rebel soldiers and traitorous politicians and " excluding 
loyal men of equal intelligence, thousands of whom have 
borne arms and shed their blood in the nation's defence." 
Their convention, however, over which Charles Sumner 
presided, had called upon Congress " to see to it that the 
loyal people, white or black, should have the most perfect 
guarantees for safety before any final steps were taken to- 
ward the readmission of the revolted people of the South 
to their forfeited rights." ^ Thus, though asserting con- 
fidence in Johnson they officially took their stand for the 
compromise theory, that the rights of the states were tem- 

aration of blacks from whites was mentioned, but perceived to be im- 
practicable. Education was advocated universally for the poor white as 
well as black, and looked to as a solution of the problem. The Spring- 
field Republican (as early as Sept. 23, 1862) saw with almost prophetic 
vision " full prerogatives of citizenship, which the most ultra of their 
friends do not propose to bestow on them at once"; and government 
interference for the protection of the weaker party if the planters 
should not give fair wages. The rest of its vision, however, was that 
of the provincial New-Englander who expected with the change of the 
labor system a change in the structure of society: the disappearance of 
aristocracy and the plantation and the emergence of middle classes — 
traders, mechanics, cultivated men in a society like their own. Then 
they believed there would be unity of interest and aims, and the nation 
would enter upon a career of prosperity, power and glory. Similarly, 
Forbes to Ashburner, Letters {Supplementary), vol. i, p. 326. 

'^Advertiser, Sept. 15, 1865; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1865, p. 534. 



^ro] RECONSTRUCTION— THEORIES AND POLICIES 157 

porarily forfeited, the theory of Congressional reconstruc- 
tion which evidenced jealous care for the security of victory. 
Addresses to the convention, however, were more bold than 
the platform. Alexander H. Bullock, candidate for gov- 
ernor, and Benjamin F. Butler, a vice-president of the con- 
vention, both urged " loyal suffrage without inequality of 
race or color." ^ 

The justice of suft'rage with an educational qualification 
was conceded even by the Democrats, — that was the Massa- 
chusetts standard ; ' but to insist that the people of the South 
should be kept out of Congress until they gave the ballot 
to the freedmen, was " an interference with local right and 
local government, revengeful and revolutionary." ^ There- 
fore the Democratic convention of 1865 approved of Presi- 
dent Johnson's plan to restore the states lately in rebellion 
to their proper position in the Union, leaving each state 
to regulate the question of suffrage for itself." * 

Moderate champions of the suffrage, in the meantime, 
urged that it be intelligent, if possible, but impartial at any 
rate. They condemned enfranchisement of the negro and 
disfranchisement of the Southern whites as displacing one 
oligarchy of race by another.^ But extremists held that 
any reorganization of the rebel states which did not rest 
on the principles of absolute equality of every man before 
the law would be '' a practical surrender of the North to 

' Advertiser, Sept. 15, 1865, records the speeches of both, 
^ Post, June 5 and July 6, 1865. On July 14 it urged: "Let an 
amendment be adopted that the representation in Congress shall be 
based upon the number of legal voters, qualified by the ability to read, 
and the merits of negro suffrage and common schools would soon be 
recognized throughout the South." 
' Post, Aug. 22, 1865. 

* Post, Sept. 29, 1865; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1865, p. 535. 

* E. g., Springfield Republican, Dec. 15, 1866. 



1^8 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [3^4 

the South ", and pledged themselves to agitation as devoted 
and tireless as that for abolition.^ Those, moreover, who 
worked diligently and effectively for enfranchisement saw 
it not at all as a matter of philanthropy or sentiment, but as 
a practical necessity for the safety of the Union and the 
continuance of peace, after all they had paid for it.^ 

For the education of the community on this point a 
suffrage meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, June 21, 1865. 
The Honorable Theophilus Parsons occupied the chair, 
John Greenleaf Whittier was a vice-president and Richard 
H. Dana, Jr., was chairman of a committee to prepare an 
address to the people of the United States urging the neces- 
sity of a reorganization of the revolted states upon just 
and correct principles. John Murray Forbes, with Whittier 
and Charles G. Loring, were on this committee. The meet- 
ing resolved : 

That in recognizing the rebel states, the safety of loyal citizens 
in those states, the stability of our government and the claims 
of justice require that none shall be allowed to vote who are 
not loyal and that none shall be expelled from voting because 
of their race and color. 

To the same end, namely, the education of the community, 
the Loyal Publication Society, the Atlantic Monthly^ and 
the North American Review * argued the cause. A North 

^ Resolution of the anti-slavery celebration at Framingham, July 4, 
1865, in Liberator, July 20, 1865. Also in Emerson's Journal for Sept. 
30, 1865 (1864-1876, p. 114), we find: "Sumner and his valiant young 
contemporaries set themselves to the task of making their views not 
only clear, but prevailing." 

'Forbes, Letters (Supplementary), vol. ii, p. 34, to Hugh McCul 
loch, July 7, 1865. 

' Atlantic Monthly, Aug., 1865 and Dec, 1866. 

* North American Review, April, 1865. 



355] RECONSTRUCTION— THEORIES AND POLICIES i^g 

American article by Lowell was generous and judicious in 
tone and outlined in theory the policy to be pursued. 

An expression of opinion even more generous and judi- 
cious than Lowell's, was embodied in Andrew's valedictory 
addressed to the Massachusetts legislature on January 4, 
1866. He argued strongly that the main elements of South- 
ern regeneration were to be sought in the South itself. 
After the anti-slavery amendment should be adopted by the 
legislatures he believed negro suffrage would be a question 
of statesmanship and not of constitutional limitation. He 
was sternly opposed to reorganization by the colored vote; 
he said : " We want the popular vote and the rebel vote is 
better than a loyal one, if on the right side." If the rebel 
vote should not be on the right side, he was not in favor 
of a surrender of the present rights of the Union to a 
struggle between a white minority aided by the freedmen 
on the one hand, against a majority of the white race 
on the other; he would not consent, having rescued these 
states by arms from secession and rebellion, to turn them 
over to anarchy and chaos. ^ 

This sane, judicious estimate of the situation was merely 
read, complimented and forgotten ; - John Murray Forbes 
confessed some years later: "Many of us, myself among 
the number, received this far-sighted advice with coolness 
or opposition; but the history of reconstruction now seems 
to prove conclusively, that his views were statesmanlike and 

^ Senate Documents, no. 2, Jan., 1866 (pp. 10, 11, 18). 

* Pearson, Life of Andrew, vol. ii, p. 289; also Springfield Republican, 
Jan. 5, 1866 : " In the whole address both in idea and spirit he has 
reached the juste milieu between the radicalism and conservatism of his 
own party." The Advertiser likewise approved; and the Post agreed 
in part : it conceded that the basis of representation to Congress should 
be changed from population to legal voters, but insisted that it should 
be done in such a way as to be in harmony with the theory that the 
states are still in the Union, 



l6o POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [3-5 

prophetic." ^ To be sure, even though not heeded in 1866, 
Andrew's plan was more far-reaching than any generally 
accepted previous to this time and as such is significant. 
Until 1865 the universal demand had been for the restora- 
tion of those states by the loyal people thereof ; - but Andrew 
would have the government of the United States require 
that guarantees of equal civil rights to the blacks, franchise 
according to laws of universal application (permitting edu- 
cational qualification), annullment of secession ordinances 
and repudiation of rebel debt, all be put to the vote of the 
people themselves. Nevertheless this comprehensive plan 
was ignored through shortsightedness. A few leaders had 
become so obsessed with one idea, they concentrated atten- 
tion on it so persistently and continually, that it blocked 
their mental vision; they had no perspective, no grasp of 
the whole situation. 

Then, too, the sincere belief of these would-be pre- 
servers of the nation that it was necessary to secure the 
fruits of victory in order to protect the country against the 
recently conquered rebels, that it was necessary to secure 
to the negro the right and privileges of his recently ac- 
quired liberty, and that the Republican party had yet more 
work to do, in fact, a mission to fulfill, became in practice 
political capital. It also furnished a good point of attack 
for the Democrats ; it was easy to say that the disfranchise- 
ment of Southern whites and the enfranchisement of the 
blacks was advocated with the intent of keeping the party 
in power for the sake of the j>ower and the advantages 

' Reminiscences, vol. iii, p. 29. The Springfield Republican, March 18 
and Sept. 11, 1867, also confessed the folly of disfranchisement of 
whites, and on Jan. 31, 1868, said : " No reconstruction can be per- 
manent and successful which does not command the consent of the 
great body of the Southern people." 

2 Cf. supra, p. 149. 



357] RECONSTRUCTION— THEORIES AND POLICIES i6i 

incident thereto. It was so argued by the Post, especially 
when commenting on the report of the committee of fifteen 
and when attacking the Freedmen's Bureau-^ As to the 
bureau itself, its opposition and support but illustrate the 
same principles involved in every reconstruction measure. 
The Democrats objected to it because it infringed " one of 
the fundamental rights " of the states, that of governing 
their own citizens by their own laws.^ The friends of the 
bureau were those championing the welfare of the negro 
because, in the words of Forbes, " He has no friend, no 
rights that a white man is bound to respect." ^ Even its 
friends regretted its military character and certain phases 
of its management;* but convinced of the practical neces- 
sity, they believed, as their legislature took occasion tO' re- 
solve,^ that the negro (soldiers, etc.) had a right to demand 
the fullest protection from the government of the United 
States. 

The Republicans of Massachusetts furthermore felt their 
party essential to such protection. Indeed their convention 
in 1866 made political capital of the various issues; their 
resolutions recognized the fact 

that all questions of reconstruction, of suffrage, of protection 
to freedmen, of security to the persecuted unionists of the 
South, resolve themselves into these : Shall the people who 

1 May 3, 1866, June 25, 1868. Also Winthrop MSS, to J. P. Kennedy, 
Aug. 12, 1866. Indeed the Post (Nov. 20, 1867) said boldly: "The 
single purpose is to get the State (Alabama) into negro control . . . 
and upon the blacks rest the Radical plans for the perpetuity of their 
present power in the nation." 

* Post, Alar. 16, 1864. 

' Letters (Supplementary) , vol. ii, p. 246. 

* Andrew to Sumner, in Pearson, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 274; Advertiser, 
Dec. 16, 1865. 

* House Leg. Doc., 1866, no. 108. 



l62 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [358 

saved the country still control it? Shall the soldiers of the 
Union, whose bravery decided on the field the fate of war 
. . . reap the rich results of their labors in the regenerated 
country? . . . Shall we reconstruct the rebels or shall they 
reconstruct us ? ^ 

Part II 

POLITICAL ISSUES TO 1 876 

With such appeals from the Republicans, namely " Should 
the people who saved the country control it? ", reconstruc- 
tion became definitely a question of party ascendency. The 
Republicans asserted that their leadership would mean con- 
fidence of the people in Congress ; and they held that Con- 
gress ought to be strengthened in its work of determining 
imder what conditions the states lately in rebellion should 
be restored. They approved the Fourteenth Amendment 
then pending before Congress and stood for the " en- 
franchisement of a long oppressed race and the establish- 
ment of an American and democratic policy of govern- 
ment ", but above all they believed it was to be the work 
of the Republican party. Moreover they attacked John- 
son as a hindrance, accusing him of betraying the party 
which elected him and " of entering into a conspiracy with 
disloyal men. North and South, to place the country per- 
manently in the hands of dangerous enemies of the gov- 
ernment." - 

In the meantime Johnson and his friends made an appeal 
to the country ; they summoned the supporters of the Presi- 
dent and his policy, Republicans and Democrats, to meet 
in a " National Union Convention " in Philadelphia. The 
cause of this Philadelphia convention of August 14, 1866, 

' Advertiser, Sept. 14, 1866; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1866, p. 478. 
' Springfield Republican, Oct. 27, 1866. 



359] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 163 

made a stir in Massachusetts; a state convention to name 
delegates was held, ratification meetings and grand rallies 
followed. But by the middle of August agitation had 
quieted down and Warrington observed : " It looks now as 
if it would not result in anything very alamiing. The 
Massachusetts delegates represent nobody." 

The movement had, in fact, but faltering supi>ort from 
the prominent non-Democrats who were nominated vice- 
presidents of the state convention; and that convention of 
August 8 was significant for the absence of the conserva- 
tive leaders, who had been expected to support this new 
endeavor to conciliate the factions of North and South. 
A contemporary report says: 

The natural leaders of a conservative party in Massachusetts 
were conspicuously absent. Mr. Winthrop was not there, 
nor Mr. Ticknor, nor Judge Curtis, nor Judge Abbott, nor Mr. 
Ashmun, nor Caleb Cushing, nor any Lawrences, nor any 
Adamses, nor any Lincolns, nor a Parker, nor any of the 
F. F's. of Boston or the Connecticut Valley. . . . Instead there 
were the old hack leaders of the Democratic party — Moses 
Bates, Edward Avery, Richard Spofford, Chester W. Chapin, 
Thomas F. Plunkett, and a portion of their recruits from the 
old Whig and Know Nothing parties in 1862; but of Republi- 
cans who voted for Abraham Lincoln in either i860 or 1864 
hardly a dozen all told, and none of these consen^ative in 
temperament or education.^ 

The same authority discounted the claim of the convention 
for a full attendance; instead the report declared that only 
about six of the hundred western Massachusetts towns 
were represented and scarcely seventy-five in all- 

It is thus clear that the attempt of 1866 to unite all 
parties was a failure. And the partisan Advertiser ob- 

' Ibid., Aug. 9, 1866. Similarly Warrington, ibid., Aug. 18, 1866. 



1 64 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [360 

served sceptically, though truly, that although the new or- 
ganization had managed for a second time to draw to itself 
some of the men who had gone into the People's party in 
1862, yet the pretense of a great popular movement which 
calls upon all good citizens to come out from their old party 
lines was now "' a rather stale trick " ; for, it concluded, 
with party dogmatism, the great mass of the Republican 
party knew that the work of firmly establishing the Union 
which four years of war had secured could only be carried 
through by the organization under which they had acted 
since 1860/ Here was the issue and here the explanation 
of the failure within Massachusetts of the cause of the 
Philadelphia convention. The crux of the situation had 
been shrewdly pointed out even in July; the judicious Re- 
puhlican had conceded that certainly one-third of the Re- 
publican Unionists would be willing to follow Johnson 
against Congress. " But to reject Thaddeus Stevens and 
Charles Sumner and support Mr. Johnson is one thing, 
and to go to bed with copperheads and rebels is another; 
and many eager for the first will hesitate long before doing 
the last." 2 

The alternative of an alliance in support of Johnson 
made up from all parties, an alternative evident from the 
membership of the convention of August 8, was an alliance 
between the new organization and the Democrats. This, 
however, was not formally accomplished until October 4, 
when both conventions met in Faneuil Hall, the one at noon, 
the other at four o'clock. Then the Democrats were unani- 
mous in their support of the ticket of the " National Union 
Convention " ; they in fact resolved that it was inexpedient 
in the present political crisis to make separate nominations.^ 

' Ibid., Aug. 8, 1866. ^ Ibid., July 21, 1866. 

' Post, Oct. 4, 1866. 



o5i] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 165 

By election day the alliance was so complete that the votes 
of the anti-Republicans were tabulated '' Democratic ". 

In the election the cause of the " National Unionists " 
was apparently forgotten. Although the political canvass 
was enlivened in the middle of September by visiting South- 
erners from the " Loyal Unionists " convention/ the cam- 
paign closed with little excitement and a light vote. Ten 
days before election Warrington regretted the " little ac- 
tivity in political affairs in this region " (Boston), and ob- 
served that in local nominations there was " very little to 
excite enthusiasm for or against ". On November 6 the 
entire Republican state ticket was reelected by a large ma- 
jority. The work and dominance of the Republican party 
were secured. 

Meanwhile we find that the nation-stirring events that 
now followed and culminated in the impeachment and trial 
of the President were foreshadowed in the resolutions ^ 
of the Republican state convention of this year, 1866. In 
answer to the general professed loyalty of all factions to 
Johnson and his policies the Massachusetts Republicans had 
then attacked him as a hindrance to the progress of recon- 
struction, had accused him of betraying the party which 
elected him, and had claimed furthermore that he had en- 
tered into a conspiracy with disloyal men, North and South, 
to place the country permanently in the hands of danger- 
ous enemies of the government. 

The resolutions of 1867 went farther. They were de- 
finite in their attack; approving the measures adopted by 
Congress, they asserted that the short-comings of Johnson 
rendered his continuance in office the constant cause of the 
gravest anxiety, and made it imperative to employ every 
constitutional mode of curbing and resisting him, and, if 

1 Advertiser, Sept. 14, 1866. ^ Supra, p. 162. 



l66 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [362 

necessary, to deprive him of all power to harm. They ap- 
proved therefore the measures of Congress to defeat the 
plans of " this dangerous and desperate man ", even to 
the exercise of the extraordinary power " to remove from 
office this destroyer of the public peace and this enemy of 
the Government itself." ^ 

As in 1865 on the question of negro suffrage, here again 
speeches to the convention were more extreme than the re- 
solutions; here again Benjamin F. Butler took the advance 
position, making a bold attack on the President. Henry 
Wilson spoke with more restraint, yet he asserted that 
Johnson was not carrying on the policy of Lincoln and 
that there was sentiment throughout the country to sustain 
Congress and to put down the unconstitutional assumptions 
of the President. Nevertheless, in spite of speeches and 
resolutions, and leaders such as Sumner, Wilson and Bout- 
well, the rank and file of the party, radical and conserva- 
tive, thought impeachment useless, ungrounded and injuri- 
ous. The criticism has in fact been made by contempor- 
aries and is to be found in the press, that the people were 
in a shocking state of indifference as to policies; the Re- 
publican commented : " They are so busy earning their bread 
and butter and money to pay taxes, that they do not seem 
to care a * red cent ' about who is governor, or president 
or member of Congress." - 

The Democrats in 1867 refused to take up the issue and 
therefore increased the indifference concerning aggressive 
action against the President.^ They said through the Post 

^ Ibid., Sept. 12, 1867; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1867, p. 482. 

^ Sprin^eld Republican, Aug. 24, 1867. Similarly Worcester Spy, 
Feb. 28, 1868: "And everywhere men pursue their ordinary ways with- 
out anxiety and without distrust. . . . The Legislature continues so 
profoundly absorbed in deciding who shall sell rum, that it has not 
even heard the commotion of the elements outside." 

> Advertiser, Sept. 16, 1867. 



363] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 167 

that impeachment was the business of Congress and not a 
popular issue in Massachusetts/ In truth the general con- 
fidence in Johnson that in 1865 was a part of the loyalty 
of all parties to the nation in the hour of need was fast 
ebbing; even his advocates were coming to disapprove of 
his course of action ^ and were not willing to champion 
his cause. The Democrats at this juncture, therefore, tried 
to direct attention to local issues which concerned the rights 
and liberties of the people of the state, declaring in the Post : 

The people of Massachusetts were never so resolved as now 
to have a clear and final understanding with the ruling party 
on the subject of their rights, and they will not be hoodwinked 
or put off by any partisan buncomb aimed at the President, the 
dead and buried rebellion, or the Radical windmill of Justice 
and Liberty.^ 

The " subject of their rights " mainly concerned the 
liquor-license question, the issue which in 1874 was destined 
to bring victory to the Democrats. But it was as yet ( 1867) 
too early to divert a campaign from national affairs- This 
was made clear by the fact that the attempt to influence the 
Republican convention on the local issue failed. Members 
of P. L. L., a license organization, and the Alliance and 
Templars, a temperance organization, were present at the 
state convention, but they neutralized each other; and the 
Republican organization and national issues were left 
triumphant. 

Yet within the Republican party impeachment was the 

* Such was also the opinion of the Springfield Republican, Sept. 6, 
1867. 

' For example, R. C. Winthrop wrote J. P. Kennedy that the presi- 
dential tone was full of infelicities and "did away with all the good 
impressions which Johnson had previously made." MSS, Oct. 14, 1866. 

» Post, Sept. 13, 1867. 



1 68 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [364 

propaganda of the minority. With the exception of his 
radical critics, in 1865 Johnson had no unyielding enemies; ^ 
in fact -the tone of the Republican press showed a general 
inianimity of sentiment against impeachment throughout 
November and December of 1867.' It was really with 
frank reluctance that the press came later to support the 
movement. The Journal said, for example, " If it is a duty 
we must take it up, but that duty must be made clearer than 
it is now." '* In general the policy of the newspapers was 
merely to record events without comment. Editorials did 
now and then discuss the issues : the Republican, for ex- 
ample, boasted that it had not hesitated to pronounce its 
disapproval of the feature of the Tenure of Office Bill which 
made it possible for cabinet officers, backed by Congress, 
to thwart the President's plans. " Such ", it said, " is not 
good government. It is not respectable politics. It is not 
even good manners." "* Yet in the same editorial it said: 

It is no matter, and nobody's business, so far as impeachment 
is concerned, whether it [the Tenure of Office Bill] is con- 

'^ Sumner MSS, especially from Ben: Perley Poore (June 26, 1865), 
who feared that Johnson was surrounded by a set of corrupt Demo- 
cratic poHticians; Garrison MSS, Garrison to his son Wendell, April 
10, 1866. The Commonwcaltli (June 17, 1865) opposed Johnson's plan 
because it did not include negro suffrage. Others less critical had 
qualms; Lawrence, for example, wrote his brother {MSS, April 15, 
1865): "It causes alarm and humiliation to have Johnson for Pres* 
so soon." 

* Hampshire Gazette, Dec. 3, 1867; Springfield Republican, Nov. 30, 
1867, said : " The tone of the Republican press shows unanimity 
against impeachment"; and the Advertiser agreed: "The press of the 
party has almost unanimously declared itself in opposition to the 
scheme." The Worcester Spy, however, with its vision colored by its 
earlier anti-slavery professions, urged action and regretted its failure 
(Feb. 25, 28, April i, May 23, 1868). 

' Jan. 29, 1867. 

* Feb. 29, 1868. 



265] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 169 

stitutional or not. . . . Mr. Johnson would be just as ^ilty 
of resisting the execution of the laws, if the bill should be 
declared unconstitutional, . . . His crime lies in making him- 
self the judge of the legality or propriety of a statute passed 
over his veto. . . . No matter how clear his convictions, no 
matter how honest his purpose, he is criminal if he refuses to 
obey a law before the Supreme Court has passed upon it. . . . 
If he can refuse to obey one law he can refuse to obey any 
law.^ 

Such was the general dispassionate acquiescence and 
qualified defense of the policy of Congress. And Warring- 
ton was undoubtedly right when he shrewdly observed : 

Parties, according to my observation, are governed generally 
by minorities. The abolitionists and radicals on the slavery 
question have never been in a numerical majority even in the 
Republican party ; • . . they won their great triumphs since 
1861, on the question of emancipation, negro soldiers, negro 
voting and so on, by the necessity of the case, and not by con- 
vincing the conservatives of the truth of their doctrines. They 
are winning the impeachment question the same way.^ 

In the end, however, the minority did not win. The 
impeachment case was lost and the conclusion of the trial 
was welcomed with a sense of relief. The resolution of 
the state convention for impeachment had been obviously 
the motion of its leaders and at no time was the case of 
vital concern to the people of the state, and finally even 
its champions recognized the advantage to the party from 
its failure.^ There was in fact a universal satisfaction 

^ With more vehemence on the same point, Hampshire Gazette, Feb. 
25, 1868. 

^ Springfield Republican, Sept. 14, 1867. 

' J. M. Forbes (Letters and Recollections, vol. ii, p. 165) to W. P. 
Fessenden, May 23, 1868, said he did not believe it was worth the 



lyo POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [366 

among Republicans that Congress could thenceforth attend 
to its legislative business and that in November the country 
could render its verdict on the President/ The Democrats, 
who had condemned the radicals leading the impeachment, 
were also satisfied with acquittal; they too looked to the 
coming election, not for a judgment on Johnson but for the 
demolition of the radical party. 

The anticipated election of the presidential year 1868 
dealt but incidentally with Johnson; it was in the main 
a contest for party permanence. The speeches of Rice and 
Boutwell at the Republican convention waived all questions 
of detail, state and national, and stood upon the platform 
of " loyalty to the republic and fidelity to the rights of 
man " ; in other words, they stood for the Republican 
party, which they believed patriotic and consistent, and 
against the Democratic party, which they believed incon- 
sistent, impatient, and wrong. The delegates at the con- 
vention approved the Chicago platform; they approved 
Congressional reconstruction as wise and good ; they praised 
Sumner's " eloquent, fearless and persistent devotion to 
the sacred cause of human rights ", and called for his re- 
election." The state acquiesced by a rousing vote in favor 
of Grant, every county and every district giving majorities 
comparable to those of i860 and 1864; with his military 
prestige. Grant kept the Republicans in power in both state 
and nation. 

Reverberation of the party antagonism of 1868 was still 

breaking-up of the Republican party, "the only bulwark of freedom," 
because, he argued, " We owe it to the living and to the dead to keep 
together until we have absolutely secured the fruits of our dearly- 
bought victories." Similarly Sumtter MSS, from Henry I. Bowditch, 
May 18, 1868; Springfield Republican and Advertiser, May 18, i868. 

* Springfield Republican, May 27, 1868. 

' Ibid., Sept. 10, 1868; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1868, p. 460. 



367] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES lyi 

evident in the campaign of the next year. The Republican 
convention in fact resolved that the Democratic party, " by 
its close alliance with the slave power during the whole 
generation, its sympathy with the public enemies during the 
late Civil War, its constant endeavors to perpetuate dis- 
order in the rebel states ", had " forfeited forever all 
claims to the confidence of the people, and could not with- 
out great peril to their liberties and fortunes be entrusted 
with the government of the nation or of this common- 
wealth." ^ But in 1870 a change was apparent. The state 
convention did not attack its opponent; instead, it devoted 
itself to its own affairs, congratulated the Republicans of 
the country on the adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth 
and Fifteenth Amendments, and approved " the vigorous 
and successful administration of General Grant " ; it then 
turned its attention to local issues that had been arising and 
increasing in number and strength since 1865, or since the 
entire energy of the people had become no longer necessary 
for the preservation of the Union. 

The Democrats in the meantime, beginning in 1865, had 
argued persistently for state rights. Like a refrain they 
repeated their theory : " Each state in the Union is free, 
sovereign and independent and entitled to exercise and en- 
joy every power, jurisdiction and right which is not ex- 
pressly delegated to the General (jovernment in the Con- 
stitution of the United States." ^ In 1868 they added a 
definite though futile attack on the party in pK>wer because, 
they said: 

The leaders of the Republican party in Congress had shown a 
consistent and persistent purpose to usurp all the powers and 

* Advertiser, Sept. 23, 1869; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1869, p. 416. 

* Post, Oct, 2, 1867. From resolutions of the Democratic State Con- 
vention. 



172 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [368 

functions of all the other departments of the Government; to 
trample on the constitution in order to organize a squad of 
negro colonies dependent on themselves, by whose aid to per- 
petuate their own political power.^ 

But the following year (1869), although they asserted that 
they still adhered to the principles of Democracy, they 
deemed it a political duty to acquiesce in settled results and 
postpone fruitless opposition to the accomplished facts of 
yesterday in order to secure effective action upon the press- 
ing problems of the day.^ And in 1871 ^ the Springfield 
convention accepted the amendments, pledging itself " to 
maintain in good faith the Constitution in all its parts and 
in all its provisions." It acquiesced in things as they were, 
it accepted the work of the party in power; but all the 
while it remained true to its refrain, its fundamental prin- 
ciple, and consistently protested against " the persistent in- 
vasion of local self-government by Congress," and asked 
that the Constitution be " strictly construed in the interest 
of the rights reserved to the States as well as those delegated 
to the general Government." * 

The nation-wide attack on the administration which came 
in 1872, although it had the support of the Democratic or- 
ganization of Massachusetts, was not of a piece with pre- 
vious attacks of the party upon the Republicans. The 
Liberal Republican movement in theory had a great many 
champions who condemned the extreme policy and the cor- 

* Post, Sept. 3, 1868; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1868, p. 459. 

* Post, Aug. 25, 1869; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1869, p. 415. 

' Criticism and opposition to definite policies were heard in 1870; but 
the resolution "that the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amend- 
ments to the Constitution of the United States are unconstitutionally 
proposed and null and void," was referred to committee and not em- 
bodied in the platform (Post, Oct. 13, 1870). 

* Post, Sept. 14, 1891 ; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1871, p. 493. 



^50] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 1 73 

ruptions of the party they had helped to maintain in power 
for a dozen years. There were also men of the anti-slavery 
group who on all other questions were democratic in their 
theories and who now felt that it was time to turn to other 
issues, such as free trade and civil service reform, and away 
from the party that had served their ideal but had become 
corrupt. There was still a third group who changed alle- 
giance for personal reasons; these were largely the friends 
of Sumner, who resented the treatment he had received at 
the hands of the executive and the consequent loss to prestige 
of the Massachusetts senator. To these later on were added 
the Democrats ; but for the present attention may be con- 
fined to the Republicans. 

For each group we might name typical representatives. 
For the idealists in pure politics and less centralized ad- 
ministration, Charles Francis Adams, Warrington, and 
among newspapers, the Springfield Republican may be 
chosen; for the anti-slavery group, some of whom were 
Democratic idealists, William Schouler, Warrington, and 
Francis W. Bird; and for the anti-Grant pro-Sumner com- 
pany, Francis W. Bird, leader of a goodly company of less 
conspicuous anti-slavery men and Abolitionists. But when 
we have named the conspicuous we find the reasons for their 
allegiance overlapping, and when we follow them from 
theory into the realities of the campaign we find their alle- 
giance shifting. 

The theory of a Liberal Republican movement was one 
thing, the nomination of Greeley was another. Warring- 
ton, for example, was ridiculed as one who would have died 
for the Cincinnati cause, but whose personal hostility to 
Greeley denied him " the sweet boon of martyrdom ".^ But 
his opposition was broader than personal feeling. Both 

* Springfield Republican, July 26, 1S72. 



174 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [370 

Warrington and Charles Francis Adams, Jr., saw and spoke 
of the incongruity of either Democrats or Republicans sup- 
porting Greeley. Adams explained clearly and at length 
his own reasons for turning from the reform movement, 
and, judging from the comments of numerous more humble 
contemporaries, his was probably the opinion of many 
others. " We went to Cincinnati ", said Adams, 

in open revolt against the party manipulations of Messrs. 
Conklin and Cameron and Morton and Chandler; when we 
got there we were met by Messrs. Fenton, Cochrane, . . . and 
they with Frank Blair, kindly proceeded to " manage " things 
for us in the good old way. ... I prefer the old set. . . . 
We went protesting against " carpet-bagism ", and they 
" carpet-bagged " our convention. . . . We went calling for 
free trade, and they gave us the most notorious and con- 
sistent protectionist in all America. We went crying out 
against centralization, and saying, " the world is governed 
too much ", and we came back with the great apostle of un- 
limited legislation on all conceivable subjects for our chosen 
candidate.^ 

Francis W. Bird and others burning for vengeance for 
their beloved senator were willing to ignore the incon- 
gruities that baffled such as Adams and enter the campaign 
on the personal issue alone. The Springfield Republican 
and individuals who were like minded, also remained loyal 
to the new movement, not, however, to avenge Sumner, 
but in protest against a party too long in power and against 
a political machine. Thus there were really two motives 
holding Republicans to the new movement, — purity in poli- 
tics and vengeance for Sumner. Perhaps the whole move- 
ment may have resolved itself into anti-Grantism. 

* Speech of Adams, Jr., quoted in the Springfield Republican, Oct. i, 
1872. 



371 ] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 175 

Allegiance to the Republican party had also, to a degree, 
a personal basis, but here the basis was both support of 
Grant and opposition to Greeley. Even so pronounced an 
anti-Republican as Robert C. Winthrop did not believe there 
was any safety in Greeley, and finally aligned himself with 
George B. Loring, who had shifted to the Republican party 
more than four years before. The conspicuous and un- 
doubtedly the humble found themselves in queer company. 
As champions of Grant and Wilson, for example, there were 
Benjamin F. Butler, Breckinridge Democrat in i860, Robert 
C. Winthrop, Constitutional Unionist in i860 and Demo- 
crat in 1864, George B. Loring, who had been with Butler 
in i860 but a Republican elector 1868, and John Murray 
Forbes, consistently, persistently though not uncritically 
Republican throughout. And, on the other hand, Bird, 
Sumner, Schouler, — Abolitionist, anti-slavery Republican 
and regular Republican, — found themselves organized with 
the war Democrats and the pro-slavery Democrats. 

We have been considering representative individuals ; as 
to political organization, the reform movement of 1872 had 
the fate of the People's party of 1862 and the " National 
Unionist " movement in 1866: in the end it became merged 
with the Democratic party. The Liberal Republican and 
the Democratic state conventions met on the same day, 
committees from both conventions conferred and reported 
nominations which were accepted with enthusiasm by both 
conventions; Charles Sumner was named for governor.^ 
Then followed a joint session addressed by ex-governor 
Banks, who hoped that the day would soon come when 
every vestige of military power and military authority would 
disappear from the government. The combined conven- 
tions adopted resolutions approving the Cincinnati and Balti- 

^ Post, Sept. 12, 1872. 



176 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [372 

more platform, attacking Grant's administration, endorsing 
Greeley and Brown, praising Sumner, with an enumeration 
of his achievements. 

Thus far Francis W. Bird was successful. It is claimed 
by Boutwell in his Reminiscences, that Bird had much to 
do with Sumner's decision to join the Liberal movement.^ 
Whether that is true or not, it is clear, as Bird pointed out, 
that Sumner adhered to the new party when two things 
were determined upon, " the protection of the colored race, 
and the defeat of Grant." " And soon after Sumner had 
advised the colored citizens of Boston to vote for Greeley, 
(thus making public his position), Bird and others of the 
State central committee of the new party issued an address 
to " those Liberal Republicans of Massachusetts who felt 
it their duty to separate from the regular Republican or- 
ganization ". The address referred to the warfare made 
upon the Massachusetts senator and condemned the Presi- 
dent and his advisers. It declared that Grant had been a 
pro-slavery Democrat and that Greeley was an anti-slavery 
man and a founder of the Rq>ublican party.^ When the 
Liberal Republican convention met Bird was temporary 
chairman ; he suggested the conference committee, and was 
on that committee; his hero, Sumner, was nominated for 
governor, and Sumner's achievements were enumerated in 
the resolutions. Bird, in turn, was nominated elector at 
large, and on the refusal of Sumner to be the candidate for 
governor, was named in his place. Thus through the pre- 
liminaries of the campaign, through party organization and 

* Reminiscences, vol. i, p. 230. 

* Post, Sept. 12, 1872; speech of Bird in Ward 11, Boston. 

* Ibid., Aug. 6, 1872. It is interesting to note that in May, Bird had 
boasted his sympathy with Democratic ideas on all topics but slavery 
and railroad incorporation. Springfield Republican, May 27, 1872. 



373] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES jyy 

nominations, the chairman of the Liberal Republican state 
committee had been a successful director. But he could 
not lead the voters generally. 

The Liberal cause in Massachusetts was never full of 
vitality; the campaign was in fact less exciting here than 
in many other states. Many Republicans throughout the 
state were disappointed in Grant and saw the mistakes of 
his administration, and had Adams been nominated at Cin- 
cinnati he might have swung the state to the reform move- 
ment; but the majority were not ready to trust Greeley. 
Dissatisfaction with Grant and distrust of Greeley, there- 
fore, took all enthusiasm from the campaign. The Spring- 
field Republican, however, talked loud and long and zeal- 
ously for the Liberal party. To be sure, that judicious 
sheet early disclaimed being a Greeley organ, and conceded 
that there was really no quarrel over the efficiency of Gov- 
ernor Washburn.^ Nevertheless in spite of these qualifica- 
tions it championed the new movement so persistently that 
there is a vague general impression that western Massa- 
chusetts went for Greeley in 1872. 

This is far from the facts. Statistics show that in the 
eleventh district, which included Springfield, only three 
towns, all in Berkshire county, went for Greeley, and these 
by small majorities; Otis, 66 to 65, Alford 43 to 30 and 
Hinsdale 139 to 129. All- the Hampden county towns of 
the district \vent for Grant ; and the total vote stood 1 1 ,962 
for Grant to 6,918 for Greeley.^ The tenth district in- 
cluded fifty-one tow^ns of Hampshire, Franklin and Wor- 
cester counties, all largely within the influence of the Re- 
publican. Of these only one, Blackstone of Worcester 
county (on the Rhode Island border), gave a majority for 

^ Springfield Republican, June 12 and Aug. 29, 1872. 

* Post, Nov. 6, and Springfield Republican, Nov. 7, 1872. 



178 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [374. 

Greeley. The total vote of the district was 14,958 for 
Grant and 4,398 for Greeley. Of the whole state Greeley 
carried not a single district or county; but the Liberals 
elected one state senator and tw^enty-f our representatives 
out of 235. The Republican itself editorially acknowl- 
edged, " It is not often that any party sweeps the western 
counties so clearly in senators and representatives as the 
Republicans have done now. It is a repetition of i860 and 
1864." ^ The total vote of the state was about 6000 less 
than in 1868, Grant's vote was about 7000 less than in that 
year, and the Liberal and Democratic vote was almost the 
same as the Democratic of that year. Grant's majority 
in 1872 was 72000 or (in round numbers) 69 per cent of 
the total vote, as compared with the Republican majority 
of 70 per cent in 1868, y2 per cent in 1864 and 70 per cent 
in 1860.=^ 

The Republican party seemed firmly grounded in Massa- 
chusetts and yet in two years the state was to have a Demo- 
cratic governor. The shifting of party allegiance which 
was so remarkable in such men as Winthrop, Bird, Sumner 
and Schouler, was only symptomatic for the future; it broke 
the hard and fast party lines. This shifting was indeed 
the beginning of deflection of Republicans, especially the 
ante-bellum anti-slavery men, to the Democratic party. It 
was brought about largely because they believed in free- 
trade and civil-service reform and were also the friends of 
local self-government, and opposed the corruptions of the 
party in power. The negro was legally and theoretically 
secured in his rights and privileges, and therefore Demo- 
cratic theories in other lines asserted themselves. Local 
issues, moreover, came to the front ; and it was in them 

1 Springfield Republican, Nov. 6, 1872. 

2 Cf. Chart, appendix i. 



375] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 179 

that the voters, having had experience in shifted allegiance 
in 1872, shifted again and voted the Democratic ticket. 
That episode will be treated in its chronological sequence. 
For the present, before leaving entirely all reconstruction 
issues, it may be well to note what had been accomplished 
by the majority in Congress and the state. 

The Thirteenth Amendment became law on December 
18, 1865. In Massachusetts it had been ratified on Febru- 
ary 2, 1865,^ " by a unanimous yea and nay vote in both 
branches of the legislature "/ and its final adoption was 
approved by all the newspapers. Tlie Post went so far as 
to say that it 

should gratify everyone who desires to see the end of a social 
institution which has been a bar to the progress of the white 
population among whom it existed, a limitation to the hopes 
of the blacks, and a source of political trouble for a long 
course of years. Its ratification we have long advocated.^ 

Acquiescence in the policy of the amendment was so gen- 
eral that the announcement of its final adoption made little 
stir.* 

Sentiment regarding the Fourteenth Amendment was not 
so unanimous. In the senate the following resolution was 
reported : 

Whereas, the constitutional amendment now proposed by Con- 
gress is unsound and dangerous in principle, since, practically 
speaking, it allows the white race of the rebel territory of the 
United States, by itself and alone, to constitute and organize 
states, and concedes to such states the right to disfranchise 

* Acts and Resolves, 1865, ch. xi, p. 445. 
'^ Andrew's telegram to the President. 

* Dec. 20 and Sept. 21, 1865. 
■* Advertiser, Dec. 20, 1865. 



l8o POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [376 

races and classes of men for capricious reasons, . . . Resolved, 
that to ratify said amendment, is consenting to the re-estab- 
lishment of that very aristocracy — a white man's government 
— out of which grew the rebellion.^ 

A committee in the house made a similar report.^ But 
though the jealous fear of the extremists for the welfare 
of the negro thus manifested itself, the majority were not 
so minded ; the amendment was ratified on March 20, 1867.' 
Outside the legislature the opposition of the Democrats 
to this amendment, as to the Civil Rights Bill in 1866, 
was on their fundamental principle of state authority. It 
was from this point of view that the Post said : 

When this amendment shall become law, so thoroughly will 
self-government have passed away from the people of this 
state, that future eulogists of monarchy will refer to this 
vote of Massachusetts acknowledging the incapacity of her 
people, juries and courts to enforce equality and justice among 
her citizens, as pointing the moral of the incapacity of man 
for self-government.* 

On the whole, however, there was surprisingly little general 

* Senate Legislative Documents, 1867. 

' House Legislative Documents, 1867, no. 149, Feb. 28, 1867. The ma- 
jority of four were Francis W. Bird, Edwin L. Barney, Oliver H. P. 
Browne, Edwin G. Walker — all of earlier abolitionist sympathies. The 
minority of three was led by George B. Loring, now in the Republican 
ranks. Cf. Worcester Spy, Mar. 2, 1867; its own dissatisfaction was 
expressed June 16, 1866. 

' Acts and Resolves, 1867, pp. 787, 788. 

* Jan. 17, 1867. On Mar. 29, 1866, in reference to Civil Rights Bill, 
the Post remarked: " Such a measure is a bold attempt under the pre- 
text of securing their rights to a class just emerging from a state of 
slavery to a state of freedom, to set aside State authority altogether, 
to make state officials from Governors down to those engaged in the 
commonest avocations abject instruments of a controlling party in 
Qjngress." 



2^yy^ LATER POLITICAL ISSUES igl 

discussion. It was the affair of the legislature, — it did not 
touch the people of Massachusetts directly; they had elected 
their representatives and to them the problems of govern- 
ment v^ere left. 

In time the Fifteenth Amendment was presented. It 
apparently satisfied the most of those who had doubted 
the efficiency of the Fourteenth/ and it was adopted by the 
senate on March 9 and by the house on March 12, 1869. 
The vote in the former was 36 to 2, in the latter 192 to 15 
(33 not voting).^ Comments were few, as on the Four- 
teenth Amendment. The Post declared that it was a party 
measure to serve party ends, and could not see why there 
could not be an educational qualification.^ But there wa8 
no aggressive protest. Neither was there much enthusi- 
asm. To be sure the Commonivealth exulted : " 'Tis done, 
the great transaction's done!" But the Advertiser, rep- 
resentative of the Republican majority, expressed merely 
complacent satisfaction that the amendment would put an 
end to all the woes and leave the national energies free to 
adjust the disturbed industries of the country, and to unite 
in ministering to its highest prosperity and happiness.* 
Acquiescence in the work of Congress was evidently a real- 
ity, which found open acknowledgment on the part of the 
Democrats in their platfonns of 1869 and 1871. 

In the meantime new issues had stirred the state, issues 
that concerned the people directly. By 1870, in fact, three 

^ A few finding voice in the Commonwealth regretted that the amend- 
ment did not recognize the right of the colored man to hold office, but 
hoped for the best from its operation (Mar. 6, 1869). 

* Acts and Resolves, 1869, p. 825. McPherson, Political History of 
Reconstruction, p. 493. The legislature elected in 1868 was composed 
of 38 Republican and 2 Democratic senators ; 224 'Republican and 16 
Democratic representatives. 

* Post, Mar. 2, 1869, and April n, 1870. 

* Jan. 25 and March i, 1869, and April i, 1870. 



l82 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [378 

new parties were organized, those of Prohibition, Labor 
Reform and Woman Suffrage. 

Agitation on the temperance question was indeed heard 
as soon as the war was ended. For eleven years Massa- 
chusetts had had a prohibitory law,^ but by 1866 violations 
of it and resistance to it began to attract attention, for in 
that year nearly half of all the prosecutions in the state 
were for maintaining liquor nuisances. Moreover a test 
case came before the Supreme Court of the United States : 
John McGuire, convicted of selling liquor contrary to the 
state law, claimed that he was licensed to sell liquors as 
a wholesale dealer under the congressional act providing 
for internal revenue. The Supreme Court sustained the 
ruling of the state court that the federal license did not give 
the accused the right to sell liquor in violation of the state 
statutes.^ Thereafter numerous petitions came to the legis- 
lature protesting against the law, and a committee was con- 
sequently appointed to investigate. In time it reported that 
the law was an infringement of personal rights; it also 
submitted evidence to show that intemperance had in- 
creased and that the contraband trade was in an inferior 
quality of liquor which added to the injurious effect of 
drinking, and it concluded with the recommendation for a 
license system. The legislature, however, rejected the re- 
commendation and retained the old law. 

But the continuous difficulty of enforcing the law agitated 
the people to such an extent that the question was considered 
by the state conventions the next year, 1867. The Re- 
publican resolution disclaiming all responsibility for the 

1 This law prohibited the sale of liquor as a beverage, and forbade 
the sale for mechanical or medicinal purposes except by agents of th« 
state appointed for that purpose. 

' Am. Annual Cyclop., 1866, p. 476. A decision in keeping with the 
theory of Massachusetts on the general policy of Reconstruction. 



379] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 183 

enactment and retention of the prohibitory law was lost in 
committee; and the Democrats applied their traditional 
principle of " opposition to all legislation that infringes 
upon the private rights and liberties of the citizens "/ In 
the meantime the advocates of prohibition organized in a 
State Temperance convention, which appealed to the people 
of Massachusetts to urge their senators and representatives 
to be true to the cause of prohibition. At the election the 
liquor question could not be ignored. But it was made an 
individual, not a party, test. The elected legislators were 
pledged, irrespective of party, as follows: in the senate 
thirty-one for and nine against license, in the house one 
hundred eighty-four for and fifty against, six being un- 
certain.^ 

A license system was of course enacted.* But the state 
was no better satisfied : Governor Claflin in fact reported 
that the prisons, jails and reformatories were filled as a re- 
sult of the new law. Another State Temperance conven- 
tion met in protest. The Democrats discussed the situ- 
ation : they denied any responsibility for the law, but were 
still persuaded of the wisdom of some regulation of the 
sale of liquors other than prohibition. The Republican 
resolutions again ignored the issue.* 

But the experiment of 1868 and the consequent dissatis- 
faction ended in a reenactment of the prohibitory law.'' 
Nevertheless dissatisfaction continued, with the result that 

' In 1866 also the Democratic platform had protested against the 
prohibitory liquor law. Post, Oct. 4. 

^ Ant. Annual Cyclop., 1B67, pp. 481 and 483. 

' Acts and Resolves, 1868, ch. cxli, pp. 107-115. 

* Am. Annual Cyclop., 1868, pp. 457 and 460; Post, Sept. 3, 1868; Ad- 
vertiser, Sept. 9, 1868. 

' Acts and Resolves, 1869, ch. ccccxv, p. 706 et seq. 



1 84 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [380 

the majority of the new members elected to the legislature 
(of 1870) were supposed to favor the sale of liquor under 
proper restricton. They amended the law so as to permit 
the sale of ale, porter, cider, strong beer and lager beer, in 
towns and cities that did not prohibit such sale.^ In the 
succeeding year (1871) the question occupied less attention: 
legislative action reversed the law by forbidding the sale 
of intoxicating liquor unless pennitted by the vote of 
people in the different towns and cities." 

The organiized protests of the Prohibitionists proved 
vain. In convention they therefore resolved, " That the 
organization of an independent political party making the 
suppression of the liquor traffic an avowed issue is an in'- 
dispensable necessity." Their first nominee for governor 
(1870) was Wendell PhilHps.' 

The Labor Reform party had been organized the previous 
year. Agitation for the regulation of the hours of labor 
and incorporation of trade unions had been heard for some 
time. As early as 1865 the Democratic platform claimed 
to sympathize with any measure by which the true interests 
of employer and employed could be promoted and secured ; * 
and in 1868 the same party more definitely resolved that 
" the rights of labor be fully maintained, and every pos- 
sible opportunity of individual improvement secured by 
just laws to the workingmen of the country." "^ But reso- 
lutions of a party not in power were entirely ineffective. 
The legislature in 1866 had definitely refused any interfer- 

* Acts and Resolves, 1870, ch. ccclxxxix, p. 298; Am. Annual Cyclop., 

1870, p. 470. 

» Acts and Resolves, 1871, ch. cccxxxiv, p. 667; Am. Annual Cyclop., 

1871, p. 491. 

* Post, Aug. 18, 1870; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1870, p. 473. 

* Post, Sept. 29, 1865. 

* Ibid., Sept. 3, 1868. 



381] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 185 

ence with the hours of labor/ and the organization of the 
Knights of St. Crispin, the largest trade union in the state, 
was refused a charter until 1870, when it was recognized 
merely as a charitable institution with a right to invest its 
funds in cooperative associations.^ Finally, therefore, in 
1869, a definite party was organized to accomplish labor re- 
form in Massachusetts. A meeting of the friends of labor 
was called on May 2y; they met again in non-political 
convention August 25 and 26, passing resolutions of sym- 
pathy with a recent Philadelphia meeting and the fomiing 
of state labor associations for the better advancement of 
their cause.^ At length on September 28, they met in poli- 
tical convention, nominating E. M. Chamberlin as candi- 
date for governor. On a platform reaffirming the prin- 
ciples of the Declaration of Independence, that " all men 
are created free and equal ", they asked for associations of 
working men or women, founded for promoting their moral 
and national interests, the " same chartered rights and 
privileges at the hands of legislators, State and National, 
as are granted associations of capital ". They demanded 
a ten-hour day in factories and workshops. They also 
endorsed the demand of the National Labor Congress, for 
the creation of a Department of Labor at Washington to 
aid in protecting the rights and interests of labor.* 

Again in 1870 and in 1871 the Labor Reformers met in 
special convention and nominated state officers.'' They re- 

' Am. Annual Cyclop., 1866, p. 474. 

' Ibid., 1870, p. 470. The Knights of St. Crispin were a boot- and- shoe 
union that obtained great influence for the passage of the ten-hour law 
of 1874. 

^ Post, Aug. 26 and 27, 1869. 

* Advertiser, Sept. 29, 1869; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1869, p. 416. 

' In 1870 the Labor Reformers joined the Prohibitionists in naming 
Wendell Phillips for governor; in 1871 they returned to their former 
candidate. 



1 86 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [382 

peated their resolutions of 1869, but added a plank on na- 
tional finances. They would have the debt speedily paid and 
held that legal tender government notes were the best and 
safest currency.^ This is the only party resolution passed 
in Massachusetts against specie payment. The question 
was really not an issue for that state. In fact the news- 
papers, from West to East, — Republican, Spy, Post, Adver- 
tiser and Commonwealth; Sumner's varied correspondents, 
especially J. M. Forbes, Amos A. Lawrence, C. E. Norton, 
and F. W. Bird ; and the Democratic nominee for governor 
(1868) J. Q. Adams, — all declared for sound money. Ben- 
jamin F. Butler probably persuaded some to his way of 
thinking but, although the Advertiser ^ confessed that it 
was not disposed to deny the ability or audacity of General 
Butler, there is no evidence that his theories had any wide 
acceptance. 

The Labor movement per se, however, was strong enough 
to get recognition in the resolutions of the leading parties, 
in both 1869 and 1870. Moreover it elected state senators 
and representatives: in 1869 one senator and twenty-two 
representatives, in 1870 eleven representatives. And the 
votes for its gubernatorial candidate, though not pretentious, 
did have an effect on the Republican majority. In 1869 
there were only 13,561 Labor votes as against 74,106 Re- 
publican and 50,701 Democrats; in 1870 the joint vote of 
Labor and Prohibition totaled but 21,946 as compared to 
79,549 Republicans and 48,536 Democrats; in 1871 again 
the 6848 Labor and 6598 Prohibition totaled only 13,346 
to 75,129 Republican and 47,799 Democrat. Yet reducing 
these figures to approximate percentages, we have for the 
three years, 1 869-1 871, this result: 

' Am. Annual Cyclop., 1870, p. 474. 
" Jan. 13, 1869. 



383] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 187 



10% (Labor) 


36% (Democrat) 


54% (Republican) 


16% 


31% 


53% 


10% 


35% 


55%. 



This shows that Labor and Prohibition helped to lessen ap- 
preciably the Republican majority which in the presidential 
years 1868 and 1872 was 69 per cent/ Viewing them there- 
fore from the standpoint of the presidential election of 1872 
they appear to be but eddies in the political current, for in 
that year no nominations were made.^ But viewed from 
future events, the temporary strength of anti-Republicans 
and non-Republicans was the beginning of the permanent 
lessening of Republican prestige. 

The third new issue that concerned the people directly, 
namely, the question of woman suffrage, was definitely 
brought before the state by the presentation of a petition to 
the legislature in 1868. A motion to refer it to the judiciary 
committee with instructions to report a bill granting the 
right requested, failed by a vote of 119 to 74.° The re- 
formers then organized, and state conventions were held 
in 1870 and 1871. They nominated no candidates, but 
passed resolutions and drew up memorials which were pre- 
sented to the leading parties. These were not ignored. 
Although the Republican platform of 1870 was silent on 
the subject, there was a strong movement for it in the con- 
vention : the resolution favoring enfranchisement of women 
being lost only by 139 to 196. Its opponents argued suc- 
cessfully that the question had not been discussed by the 
constituencies and therefore the delegates could not know 
the will of the people, and also that it would be unwise to 
distract attention from the big issues.* The Labor Re- 
formers (1871), however, by vote of 120 to 85, recognized 

* Cf. graph, appendix i. - Post, Aug. 22, 1872. 
' Am, Annual Cyclop., 1868, p. 459. 

* Advertiser, Oct. 6, 1870, gives account of the motions made. 



1 88 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [384 

woman's right to the ballot and demanded equal pay for 
equal work.' The Democrats on the other hand said it was 
necessary to remove property qualifications and other limi- 
tations before considering woman suffrage, and in 1871 
John Q. Adams, their nominee for governor, came out 
openly against it.^ But the resolutions and memorials of 
the suffragists were, in fact, so well received that in the 
legislature of 1870 the Republican majority of the senate 
recognized the fitness of women to hold offices of political 
importance,^ and in the house it defeated the suffrage 
amendment only by the vote of the speaker. 

These eddies in the political current the Republican party 
persistently tried to avoid. In 1866 it enunciated its pro- 
gram. The state convention, in answer to the growing de- 
mands of labor and prohibition, resolved that questions 
of state and municipal administration must still in large 
degree be held subordinate to those greater questions of 
national policy which agitate and interest the people of the 
whole country alike.* In keeping with this theory the 
resolutions on local issues were sent to committees or 
ignored for some time. But one after another forced re- 
cognition (though in very vague terms) : labor reform in 
1868, the temperance issue in 1870, and woman suffrage 
finally in 1871, when the Republican convention character- 
istically conceded that " the subject of suffrage for woman 

* Am. Annual Cyclop., 1871, p. 494; Post, Oct. 5, 1871 ; also Am. An- 
nual Cyclop., 1872, p. 503. 

* Post, Oct. 30, 1871. 

* Statement hereof in suffrage memorial and Republican resolutions, 
1870. {Advertiser, Oct. 6, 1870, and Am. Annual Cyclop., 1870, p. 493.) 
The courts, however, later ruled that Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Mrs. 
Stevens had no legal authority to exercise any of the functions of jus- 
tice of the peace, to which office they had been appointed by Governor 
Claflin. Am. Annual Cyclop., 1871, pp. 491 and 492. 

* Advertiser, Sept. 14, 1866. 



385] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 189 

is a question that deserves the most careful and respectful 
consideration"/ In 1871, however, and again in 1873 
Benjamin F. Butler, within the party, championed all the 
new causes it had tried to ignore. He hoped thus to center 
interest in himself, their champion. Consequently the party 
that had avoided the eddies here and there, and had pursued 
its course serenely was flung into a veritable whirlpool. 
Yet by shrewd management it was steered safely through 
on its accustomed course, " the greater questions of national 
policy." 

The Butler episodes, that of 1871 in particular, are dra- 
matic, humorous, lamentable, — dramatic, in that one man 
could defy the political organization and unaided by the 
press gain a following which threatened to control the 
party ; humorous, in view of our present knowledge, in that 
Benjamin F. Butler should have stood for prohibition and 
reform, attacking the extravagance and corruption of the 
the state administration; lamentable, in that on equivocal 
statements a man could gain so great a following and arouse 
an opposition which in its antagonism to him defended 
things as they were and consequently prevented any move- 
ment toward reform that perchance might have developed. 

Preliminary to the campaign of 1871, when it was 
rumored that Governor Claflin was not putting himself for- 
ward for renomination, Benjamin F. Butler wrote a letter 
declaring his intention to run for the nomination. It was 
an answer to questions addressed to him by the Springfield 
Sunday Chronicle.' The questions, it is claimed, were sug- 
gested that the letter might be written in which Butler might 
declare his intentions. The main point of the letter con- 

* Ihid., Sept. 28, 1871 ; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1871, p. 493. 

' Both the questions and the letter were quoted in the papers through- 
out the state, in the Springfield Republkan on July 17, 1871. 



igo POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [386 

cerned the prohibition law. He held that if a law was on 
the statute books it should be enforced and therefore he 
would enforce it. This declaration was universally, scorn- 
fully criticized; in fact, at the end of a week after the 
publication of the letter the Springfield Republican noted 
that everybody, excepting a few disorganizers and federal 
office holders, was "merry over the complete failure of 
the big Butler movement thus far ", and that except in 
Essex county, Butler's home, the manifesto was very coldly 
received.^ 

But the general was undaunted. In the month interven- 
ing before the state convention he made twenty-two speeches, 
in which he attacked the extravagance of the state admin- 
istration ^ and called for reform in the legislature, laws and 
party.^ He added one issue after another until he had a 
wide platform including all possible planks, both new and 
popular: he appeared to favor labor reform, woman suf- 
frage, prohibition ; he even suggested that the idea of tariff 
to protect the laboring man was illusory ; * and he finally 
defended specie payment.^ In the main, however, he cham- 
pioned local issues, and his position was stated with Delphic 
skill. In the manufacturing center of Lawrence, for ex- 
ample, he voiced their questioning: he asked what argu- 
ment there could be on the part of Republicans for opposing 
labor-reform measures. And he answered, " Humanity, 
judgment, reason, candor and the well-being of the states — 
all are in favor of some legislation for the laboring man." * 

' July 24, 1871. 

* Post, Sept. 14, 1871, at Hyde Park; Ibid., Aug. 24, and Advertiser, 
Aug. 25, 1871, at Springfield. 

' Post, Sept. 15, 1871, at Athol and North Adams. 

* Ibid., Aug. 24, 187 1, at Springfield. 

* Ibid., Sept. I, 1871, at Clinton. 
' Post, Sept. 17, 1871. 



387] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES igi 

In the western part of the state he made other generaliza- 
tions on the subject. Labor reform, he told his Spring- 
field audience, was only advanced Republicanism : now that 
they had settled the question of slave labor, " why should 
not the Republican party still go forward and adjust, settle 
and define the exact relations of labor and capital and pro- 
tect the ill-paid and overworked laborer ?" ^ On the sub- 
ject of woman-suffrage he was equally indefinite. He told 
a Worcester audience that women had the right to the suf- 
frage " whenever they choose to demand it." ^ 

Such statements as these inevitably provoked discussion. 
His promise that prohibition should be enforced every- 
where if the people wanted it,^ drew from Warrington, 
for example, a letter to the Boston Journal exposing the 
fallacy of supposing that this assertion was made, as ap- 
peared on the surface, in the interest of temperance. He 
said the pledge to enforce the prohibitory law was really a 
license measure, for when the law was really enforced the 
people would not stand it and there would be a reversion 
to license.* Butler's criticisms of the administration were 
also refuted, not, however, because of their equivocations, 
but because of their misstatements of fact. The Advertiser, 
for example, pointed out two or three of the most striking 
instances : 

The commissioners on street railways, during the short time 
they were in office, are charged with receiving twenty or 
twenty-five dollars a day. The fact that they never received 
a farthing from the State treasury, but were paid by assess- 
ment on the railway companies, is suppressed. The expenses 

' Post, Aug. 24, 1 87 1. 

' Ibid., Aug. 31, 187 1. 

» Ibid. 

* Quoted by the Spring^eld Republkan, July 25, 1871. 



192 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [388 

of the board of education are given at $18,311.98, but no 
mention is made of the fact that it is mainly paid from the 
income of a trust fund established for the purpose, and not 
from the treasury. The expenses of the insurance commis- 
sioners are given at $20,119.38; but the fact is suppressed 
that the income of the department for the same time was 
$34,902.96, the surplus accruing to the treasury amounting to 
nearly $15,000.^ 

The campaign thus became heated. x\nd although the 
press would not support Butler and, with the exception of 
the Post, did not give many of his speeches in full, yet they 
gave him publicity by their refutations. The Post, more- 
over, commented on the campaign: "The crack of the 
whip is loud and startling " ; and later explained figura- 
tively: "In the mouth of Benjamin's sack the President 
has placed the silver cup of official favor, and who so 
bold, so reckless of party discipline, as to refuse to receive 
him whose broad back bears all their party hopes and 
promises." ' Such statements were in turn denied by the 
regular Republicans. 

But the censure of the Republican press and its refuta- 
tions w^ere not completely effective. An animated canvass 
was succeeded by the following results : a majority of the 
ward meetings in Boston footed up in Butler's favor; and 
among neighboring cities and towns Lowell was for and 
Cambridge against him, Quincy, for and Newton against 
him ; and so it went. 

He hoped of course to carry the conventioiL It was be- 
lieved on the night before the regular session (so the 
Springfield Republican reports) that there were 350 dele- 

' Advertiser, Aug. 25, 187 1. 

* Aug. 30 and Sept. 4, 1871. 

* Post, Sept. 21 and 23, 1871. 



389] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 193 

gates for Washburn, 125 for Rice, 125 for Loring and 500 
for Butler. Butler's first effort was to bring about a dis- 
cussion of credentials. In this he failed. The convention 
voted to admit every delegate who bore a certificate from 
the chairman and secretary of a meeting regularly called 
and held at the place and hour named in the call, and to 
throw out contestants as bolters. This, according to the re- 
porter of the Republican,^ let in the delegates chosen by ma- 
jorities made up of Labor Reformers, Democrats and non- 
residents; in short it gave Butler the benefit of his bold 
captures of Republican meetings by non-Republicans. But 
this vote prevented a discussion of credentials in open con- 
vention and left the decision to the committee. By the vote 
it was evident that he could not swing the convention, 
whereupon he ceased his aggressive policy. The regulars, 
however, did not relax their vigilance. Both Rice and Lor- 
ing refused to be candidates for the nomination. There 
could thus be no division in the regular vote through which 
Butler might obtain the nomination. The Rice delegates 
and most of the Loring men voted for Washburn. Of the 
votes cast, Washburn received 643 and Butler 464. 

When it was thus evident that the party leaders had out- 
generalled Butler, he did not bolt, as might have been ex- 
pected, but stood by the action of the convention. 

In the words of the partisan press, " He marched over 
the state with the stride and voice of a braggart." ~ Yet 
he had nevertheless voiced the growing dissatisfaction with 
the administration in terms of local issues which had af>- 
pealed to the interest of the people, and in spite of party 
organization and the opposition of the press, had won for 
himself a goodly minority. It was with great relief that 
the regular Republicans greeted the news of his defeat. 

* Sept. 27, 1871. 

* Advertiser, Sept. 29, 1871. 



194 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [390 

The Butler episode of 1873 was similar to that of 1871. 
Again local issues were raised, and prohibition was given 
especial prominence. Again, by his own labors in speech- 
making and by the excellent organization of his campaign, 
he won many delegates and hoped to carry the convention. 
But when he talked of reform, his opponents spoke of the 
" salary grab" which he had supported; when he talked of 
prohibition, they pointed to the saloon-keepers in his ranks. 
The regulars feared his power and held anti-Butler meet- 
ings, while the Democrats distrusted him because of his 
deflection to the Republican party during the war ; the Post 
had a personal grievance against him,^ and the newspapers 
generally were opposed to him. The Republican, indeed, 
said, " His strength is merely in quarters totally unaffected 
by newspaper articles." ^ 

He approached the convention, nevertheless, with appar- 
ent assurance. On the day preceding the sitting of the 
convention the Butlerites posted a bulletin claiming 527 
delegates as opposed, to 506 for Washburn, 70 not re- 
ported. At the same hour and place the bulletin of the 
regulars claimed 602 as opposed, to z}40 for Butler, 40 in 
doubt and 26 not reported.* In the convention Butler 
again tested his strength in the attempt to have creden- 
tials discussed generally. He presented a resolution that 
Henry M. Green of Franklin, who had said if Butler was 
nominated he would bolt from the convention, should be 
debarred from taking part in the proceedings. The reso- 
lution, novel in substance as it was, did provoke consider- 

^ According to the Springfield Repuhlkan (Aug. 11, 1873), the Post 
held Butler largely responsible for the widening of the street near the 
U. S. Post-Office which would compel the Post to give up its building 
and find new quarters. 

» July 17, 1873. 

* Springfield Republican, Sept. 10, 1873. 



39l] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES ipg 

able discussion before the regulars moved to refer it to the 
committee on credentials. That motion was carried by 584 
yeas (from Washburn delegates), and 539 noes (Butler 
votes). Again he evidently could not carry the convention; 
but he did not give up immediately. It was objected by 
a Butler delegate that there were not 1123 men in con- 
vention, whereupon William M. Rice, a Washburn dele- 
gate, moved that voting should be done by counties. This 
motion was carried by 586 yeas to 406 noes. Butler at 
first determined to have the vote on the motion to refer 
to committee verified, but in the evening withdrew his mo- 
tion to that effect. He was convinced by this time that 
the majority of the delegates were in favor of Washburn, 
and he therefore withdrew his candidacy.^ 

The election following, like that of 1871, was a party 
victory on general principles. When the internal conflict 
was over the Republican party, confident of its usual suc- 
cess, temporized with current issues in vague resolutions. 
Its main planks were party acknowledgment and general 
national topics. Then for the twelfth year the Republicans 
held the power in Massachusetts, and held it on national 
issues. But the majority in both 1871 and 1873 was much 
smaller than in the presidential year, — evidence of a grow- 
ing dissatisfaction and a changing of issues. There was 
no longer any necessity to support the Republican party in 
order to attain military victory, nor, in the eyes of a grow- 
ing number, was such support longer requisite for the 
guardianship of the victory already attained. The Republi- 
can party, persisting in its platform of " greater questions 
of national policy," remained in power, but by a vote of 
only 54 per cent. 

In 1874 it lost even this small majority. The local topics 

1 Springfield Republican, and Advertiser, Sept. 11, 1873. 



196 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [392 

which had come to the front since the close of the war, — 
labor, temperance, woman suffrage, — the party had endeav- 
ored to ignore, but had been forced to notice. Its organ- 
ization and strength had been able to withstand the attempt 
of Butler to secure his own supremacy through champion- 
ing all the popular issues at once; but in 1874 general na- 
tional topics were dull, Butler was quiet and the temper- 
ance issue, unhampered by other reforms and unaffected 
by the personal standing of a conspicuous champion, proved 
itself of sufficient concern to the people of the state to 
subordinate all other issues and secure in the vote for gov- 
ernor an expression of opinion on this topic aloiie. This 
vote, which defeated prohibition, discredited the Republican 
candidate for governor. 

Lieutenant-governor Talbot had succeeded to the gover- 
norship on April 30, 1874, when Governor Washburn re- 
signed to become senator. In June he vetoed two measures 
of the legislature to abolish the state constabulary, and also 
** an act regulating the sale of spirituous or intoxicating 
liquors " which was to do away with the prohibitory law. 
This check on legislative action was widely denounced. As 
the campaign approached, in consequence, Governor Talbot 
wrote a letter saying that he considered the Republican 
party necessary to the country, and that therefore it had 
better nominate some candidate whose views on the tem- 
perance question should not lessen the harmony within the 
party/ 

The convention, however, with a large prohibitionist con- 
stituency, was loyal to its governor. Thus so far as Talbot 
was concerned there was an alliance between the Prohibi- 
tionists and the Republicans. Such an alliance with local 

■ Letter to the Republican state committee; Am. Annual Cyclop., 1875, 
P- 477. 



293] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 197 

propaganda was quite contrary to the previous consistent 
practice of the party, and brought temporary defeat. There 
had, to be sure, been murmured and outspoken dissatisfac- 
tion with the state government (other than that voiced by 
Butler) for some time. There was a growing convic- 
tion that it had been in the same hands long enough. 
There was dissatisfaction with affairs at Washington, and 
one means of expressing that dissatisfaction was to dis- 
credit the party within the state. There was very strong 
disgust with the partial enforcement of the prohibition law, 
and with the consequent demoralizing effect of such law- 
lessness. And finally, there was rage on the part of many 
that the " no " of one man should block the will of the 
legislature for change in this matter. All these factors 
were at work, and when the Republican party braced itself 
against the next definite grievance, the prohibitory law, then 
that party was destined to defeat. 

Gaston, the Democratic candidate for governor, carried 
all but four districts, Worcester and the three around Bos- 
ton, but the other executive officers were Republican with 
their customary majorities. In the senate there were 24 
Republicans, 1 5 Democrats, and i Independent, while there 
were in the house 155 Republicans, 79 Democrats and 6 
Independents, thus giving the senate a majority of 8 Repub- 
licans and the house a majority of 70. This legislative ma- 
jority favored a modification of the liquor laws, so that we 
might conclude that the decision was not so much against the 
Republican party as it was against the alliance between Re- 
publicans and Prohibitionists. But the congressional elec- 
tions show increasing dissatisfaction with the administnt- 
tion of the dominant party: there were five Republican, 
four Democratic and two Independent congressmen.^ 

^Advertiser and Post, Nov. 4, 1874; and Am. Annual Cyclop., 1874, 
p. 523- 



1^8 POLITICAL OPINION IN MASSACHUSETTS [394 

This diminution of the Republican majority continued 
after 1874, but in sHghter measure: one anti-Republican 
congressman was elected in each of the next three congres- 
sional elections, and in 1882 four were chosen. In 1876 
the people supported Hayes, but with a less firm majority 
than any president had received in twenty years, while 
Charles Francis Adams, the Democratic nominee for gov- 
ernor, was defeated by a very narrow margin. At the 
same time, the legislature was still held by a staunch Re- 
publican majority : there were 33 Republicans to 7 Demo- 
crats in the senate, and 178 to 62 in the house. By 1876 
important local and new national issues had broken the 
solid Republican ranks and continued so to do until erst- 
while regulars such as John Murray Forbes ^ followed 
Charles Francis Adams into the Democratic party. 

With the rise and dominance of the Democratic party in 
Massachusetts we are not concerned. We have traced the 
course of p>olitical opinion in the state through the periods 
of the Civil War and the Reconstruction, and have seen 
that that opinion stood in general for two successive prin- 
ciples. The first of these, prevalent throughout the Civil 
War, was the support of the administration in the pre- 
servation of the Union, through emancipation, if need be, 
although emancipation was for the most part a subsidiary 
issue. The second principle, governing the period of the 
Reconstruction, was that of the support of the victorious 
part>', which is to say the Republican party, in securing to 
the country union, nationality, and lasting democracy as 
the permanent fruits of victory. In neither period was 
there unanimity of opinion. In the war period there were 
critics and copperheads who worked against the adminis- 
tration ; at the beginning of reconstruction days there were 

' Forbes, Letters and Recollections, vol. ii, p. 143, 



395] LATER POLITICAL ISSUES 199 

divergent theories. But both copperheads and theorists 
disappeared. The former gradually lost sympathy for the 
desperate and defeated cause. Of the latter some became 
tempered by interest in local issues; while the majority 
acquiesced in the theories of the party leaders, from what, 
at the time, appeared to be the necessity of the case. That 
necessity, as interpreted by the majority throughout the 
whole period, was the preservation of the Union, through 
the support of the administration to the accomplishment of 
military success, and through the establishment of the Con- 
stitution, by the party that had saved it, within the Southern 
states with amendments which should in the belief of Re- 
publican leaders, secure republicanism and democracy for 
the entire country. When in form at least that purpose 
appeared to be accomplished, the people of Massachusetts 
turned their attention to matters of administrative reform 
and to local interests. 




. proportion, the other totals all opponents of Republicans. 



APPENDIX I 
Graph Illustrating in Percentages the Votes in Massachusetts 1856-1876 



Democratic 

and 
Opposition. 



Republican 
(Union, 
Adminis- 
tration). 



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73.46 






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71.80 





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69.66 
















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53.55 




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4667 


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46.98 




45.82 








^45. 46, 


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48.37 




46.42 








48.11 










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42.54 




















































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'IP 









Explanation : The Light Broken Hnes represent the presidential 
1 A Republican governor was elected, however. 



average. The Black Hnes represent the gubernatorial average. One line is for the Republican proportion, the other totals all opponents of Republicans. 



APPENDIX II 

The Press of Massachusetts during the Sixties 

The purpose of this sketch is to describe the various news- 
papers quoted in the monograph, to state the poUtics and 
estimate the influence of each, as well as to show why these 
particular papers were selected as adequate evidence of the 
opinion of the whole state. Concerning the last point it is 
obvious that the task of reading all the Massachusetts dailies 
and weeklies of the Civil War and Reconstruction periods 
would be long and repetitious and not altogether necessary, 
for, since newspapers are not all individual in their views but 
are generally party organs, it is possible to group the numerous 
files in the Boston Public Library and the American Anti- 
quarian Society in such a way that a few representative sheets 
will give an adequate estimate of the opinions of the press. 
And since leading papers are widely read and frequently 
quoted, it is possible to read the leading papers of each faction, 
and thus ascertain the views of and within the various parties. 
Yet it must always be remembered that a newspaper may ex- 
press the view of a faction and not express the view of the 
people; for editors often tried to mold public sentiment instead 
of expressing it, or they talked loud and long to direct opinion 
into channels they thought wise or profitable. On the other 
hand, where there was but one newspaper in a community, 
as in many small cities and towns, that newspaper was not 
so strongly partisan as the Boston publications. It is true, 
too, that such a paper often shows the consensus of opinion 
of its locality; for, if it did not at first express what the 
people already thought, the people soon thought what the paper 
persistently reiterated. Therefore, in the following descrip- 
tion, an effort will be made to show not only the politics of the 
397] 201 



202 APPENDIX II [398 

papers consulted, but, whenever possible, the extent to which 
they expressed or molded public opinion. 

Among the more eminent formulators of opinion, the 
beacon lights of their communities were notably the Newbury- 
port Herald, the Worcester Spy, and the Springfield Re- 
publican.^ Naturally the smaller local papers followed the 
lead of nearby prominent dailies; when a prominent daily is 
read, therefore, the point of view presented to the people of 
its section of Massachusetts is easily ascertained. Neverthe- 
less a few of the local weekly papers were well edited and had 
an influence similar to that of the more famous dailies. The 
Hampshire Gazette, for example, although it generally fol- 
lowed the lead of the Springfield Republican, must be ranked 
with its leader because its influence was similar ; the Gazette 
was in fact held by its readers to be " law and gospel "} 
And in all probability the Essex County Mercury was to the 
rural districts around Salem what the Gazette was to the 
Hadleys. 

Of these notable formulators of public opinion, the New- 
buryport Herald was conservative, the Worcester Spy radical 
and the Springfield Republican judicious and the champion of 
administration policies. The first had been a Whig paper, and 
although its position was that " the union of these states 
should be maintained ",^ yet it opposed all abolitionist agita- 

^ Gladden, Recollections, pp. 242-245, explains that the method by 
which the Springfield Republican obtained and kept such remarkable 
hold on the towns of western Massachusetts was the column of local 
items. Through it the paper contained something of immediate interest 
to each family, — a policy first inaugurated by the Hampshire Gazette. 

* Godwin, Life of Bryant, vol. i, p. 128. A letter of Bryant describes 
the influence of the Gazette at an earlier time. The description was 
true of the sixties, judging from the testimony of contemporaries. 
"Let the 'Hampshire Gazette' only give the word," Bryant writes. 
" which, by the by, it copies from some leading Federalist paper, and 
every Federalist in the country has his cue, everybody knows what to 
think." 

* Newburyport Herald, April 8, 1861 ; also testimony of Rev. John R. 
Thurston, resident of Newburyport in the sixties. 



399] APPENDIX II 203 

tion and was not pleased with the Emancipation Proclamation. 
The city of its publication, a seaport, profited from Southern 
trade; and, because of the community's commercial interests, 
the Herald was loath to see the institution of the South 
disturbed. 

On the other hand the Spy, " the infalHble sheet " of Wor- 
cester County, was strongly anti-slavery: in 1862, for example 
it was anxious for emancipation and urged that policy while 
its neighbor, the Springfield Republican, held back, awaiting 
the action of the administration. Indeed, the Boston Courier 
accused the Spy, because of its anti-slavery tendency, of being 
abolitionist, and when it opposed the compromise measures 
of 1 861 classed it with the New Bedford Standard, the Salem 
Gazette, the Fall River Nezvs, and the Boston Traveller, all 
of which it said were as much Garrisonian as the Liberator.^ 
In the early part of the war the columns of the Spy were filled 
with reports of battles and the conditions of the soldiers; 
financial problems incident to the war were described, not 
discussed. Thus, excluding its policy as to emancipation, it 
usually gave the facts and left the people to form their own 
opinions concerning the policy of the administration. After 
the war the main idea of the Spy was impartial suffrage; it 
tolerated various laws passed by Congress, but held that 
they were inadequate; it was vehement in its opposition to 
Johnson and disgruntled that he was not convicted. Until 
this disappointment, however, the Spy's news and descrip- 
tions of the progress of reconstruction continued to be very 
complete and satisfactory. 

The last named prominent daily, the Springfield Republican, 
took the middle ground and stood squarely by the administra- 
tion; it defended every action and would forestall any inde- 
pendent criticism of the government. Its attitude toward any 
possible action of the president for emancipation is only 
illustrative of its whole policy. In this connection it declared 
its purpose to stand by him and his chosen generals, and, 

' Courier, Feb. 21, Nov. 19, i86i. 



204 APPENDIX II [400 

whether or not it approved of all he did, to do nothing 
to weaken his hands, or to destroy the faith of the people in 
him.^ And thus throughout the war, although the Republican 
was conservative, it was, above all else, the administration 
paper.2 Nevertheless it was liberal : it allowed its corres- 
pondents to say what they believed even though their views 
did not coincide with the policy of the editors. This is true, 
especially, of the letters of Warrington the Boston correspon- 
dent, who was more aggressive in his desire for emancipation 
than were Samuel Bowles and his associates.^ But in spite 
of this liberality the paper exerted its greatest influence 
through its editorials, which, did we not know the policy of 
the paper, would almost appear to have been prophetic in their 
judgment. It manifested the same farsightedness during re- 
construction times. It was among the earliest to recognize 
the wisdom of Andrew's valedictory suggestions ; it believed 
in democracy and therefore in universal suffrage; yet it also 
believed in amnesty and in the rebuilding of the South by its 
natural leaders. In the seventies, however, it resented the 
corruption and the domination of the Republicans, and, there- 
fore, it supported the reaction against the party. Unques- 
tionably throughout the period, whether in loyalty or later op- 
position, the Republican always spoke the sentiment of the 
more discreet Republicans.* 

^ Springfield Republican, July 26, 1862. 

* When Samuel Bowles was in Europe in 1862, and later when he was 
in California, the paper was under the direction of Dr. Holland. Then 
it swerved a little in its general policy, e. g., in 1862 it supported the 
anti-administration People's party. But on the return of Bowles it 
again championed the administration. Cf. Merriam, Life of Bowles, 
vol. i, pp. 357-358. 

2 Warrington was William S. iRobinson, a member of the Bird Club. He 
wrote for the Atlas and the Bee, and for the Commonzvealth, because in 
them he could express his anti-slavery beliefs. Other Boston papers 
would not accept his articles. — " Warrington " Pen Portraits, p. 94. 
Merriam {Life of Bowles, vol. i, p. 388) characterizes him as the 
cayenne pepper of the Republican salad in the years between the birth 
of the Republican party and the Greeley revolt. 

* Even the Courier testifies to this, Aug. 30, 1861. 



40l] APPENDIX II 205 

Among the representative papers of Boston, those most 
often quoted were the Traveller, Courier, Journal, Post and 
Advertiser. 

The first named is said to have been " the Transcript of 
the sixties ", a household necessity, while the Journal was 
essentially the organ of news, giving full telegraphic reports 
of congressional and legislative proceedings, and boasting as 
its Washington correspondent Ben: Perley Poore. It was 
also conspicuous as the two-cent sheet when all others were 
three cents, and it probably and perhaps consequently had 
the largest circulation. The third Republican publication of 
this Boston group and perhaps the most important was the 
Advertiser. It, like the Traveller, was a household necessity, 
but it was more; it was a political necessity as well. A de- 
cade earlier, like the Newburyport Herald, it had been a Whig 
paper and, like the Herald, it remained conservative, though 
not to the same degree as the sheet of the lesser town; the 
Advertiser was, on the contrary, wholeheartedly Republican. 
The esteem in which it was held and the influence it exerted 
are constantly in evidence. It is always the paper mentioned 
by the correspondents of Andrew, Forbes, Sumner and 
Lawrence ; it is described by contemporaries as " reliable ", 
by rivals as " respectable 'V and by friends affectionately 
named the " Tiser ".^ Moreover the prominent directors 
of opinion wrote for it under frequently recurring pen names. 
" Audax " or " Economist," for example, was John Murray 
Forbes, " Americanus " was Theophilus Parsons,^ and " N " 
was C. E. Norton. In consequence of these contributions the 
New England Loyal Publication Society quoted largely from 

^ E. g., Courier, Mar. 24, 1863. 

* E. g., Forbes, Letters {Supplementary) , vol. ii, p. 196, to C. E. Nor- 
ton, Dec. 31, 1863. 

* Sumner MSS, from Theophilus Parsons, Dec. 2^, 1864. Also from 
George Bemis, Jan. 13, 1863, we learn " Jus " was C. F. Blake ; and 
from Theophilus Parsons, Feb. i, 1865, that "Privaticus" was Robert 
C. Winthrop. 



206 APPENDIX II [402 

articles of the Advertiser, thus saving labor and, at the same 
extending the influence of that paper. 

The two other prominent Boston dailies, the Post and the 
Courier, were anti-Republican, anti-administration, anti-war 
and sometimes anti-Union. The Post,^ according to the Spy, 
was the " Boston organ of official Democracy "^ It also rep- 
resented the commercial interest that would conciliate the 
South because a quarrel with that section of the country 
might deprive New England of her customers; it was for 
the same reason opposed to any interference with the in- 
stitution of slavery; it supported Breckinridge in i860, partly 
because it had quarrelled with Douglas on the Kansas issues, 
and partly because Breckinridge was the candidate of the 
South. In general it stood for the Union during the war, 
and for immediate restoration as soon as the war was over. 
It had been consistently Democratic ; on the other hand the 
Courier, like the Advertiser and the Newburyport Herald, 
had earlier been a Whig paper, and in January, i860, was 
favorable to the Democrats,^ but under the leadership of 
George Lunt and George Hillard it became the organ of the 
Constitutional Union party. It took as its motto, " The Union, 
the Constitution, the Enforcement of the Laws." On March 
20, i860, it declared that there ought to be a party organized 
" with the express purpose in view of putting an end to anti- 
slavery agitation — that acknowledged source of vast political, 
economical and social evils and absolute bane of our national 
welfare." Thus it is easy to understand why the Liberator 

^ " The circulation of the Boston Post is nearly double that of any- 
other 3-cent commercial paper in Boston." — From head of editorial 
column, March, i860. This statement must stand for whatever it may 
mean on the surface. An effort was made to get newspaper statistics, 
but none were available ; the above statement, therefore, like that con- 
cerning the circulation of the Journal (supra, p. 205), is given for its 
face value. 

* Worcester Spy, April 2, i860. 

• Coleman, Life of Crittenden, vol. ii, p. 183. Letter from Amos A. 
Lawrence, Jan. 6, i860. 



403] APPENDIX II 207 

Spoke of it as " a villainous sheet." ^ In July, i860, the New 
York Tribune had said that among the conservative journals 
the Courier was " the ablest " ; but before its decease in De- 
cember, 1864, it was very poorly conducted and deserved a 
measure of George Livermore's characterization, " that in- 
famous reservoir of treason, mendacity and scurrility." - 

Besides the well established papers ^ which molded opinion 
and expressed party views, there were in Boston special 
campaign sheets,* which expressed the views and supported 
the policy of Governor Andrew and the Bird Club ; ° they 

' Liberator, Dec. 7, i860, 

* Sumner MSS, Jan. 12, 1864. Livermore states that George Hillard 
was no longer connected with the paper. James Freeman Clarke's 
characterization of it is amusing: "People have croaked at every ad- 
vance of the human race. ... I look upon the Boston Courier as a 
kind of marsh which has been providentially provided for these people, 
where they can sit and croak to each other in a sort of frog concert 
of mutual condolence." Sermon: April 2, 1863. 

' The New York Tribune should also be taken into account, for, 
though not belonging to Massachusetts, it was widely read, frequently 
quoted and impUcitly beUeved. Miss Ann Page and Captain Comey 
(2d Mass.), of Danvers, for example, say that the New York Tribune 
was a great factor in molding opinion in their neighborhood. Gladden, 
Recollections, p. 173, says it was the " Republican Bible ". No sta- 
tistics are available as to the number of its subscribers, but on Dec. 8, 
1859, the Courier, in praise of the Journal, said it exceeded the Tribune 
by 5,000 copies. Evidently the Tribune had a strong following if it 
was success to surpass it. 

* " Warrington " Pen Portraits, pp. 93-94. Mrs. Robinson describes 
these special papers. She attributes much importance to their influence. 

* Sanborn, Life of Howe, p. 252, note i : " The Bird Club originated 
about 1850 in the dining together at George Young's Hotel in Boston 
of a few of the political anti-slavery men, who, like Francis William 
Bird of Walpole, were active in elections and campaigns. By 1856, 
when the Kansas troubles came on, it had become a large and powerful 
body of men, with no definite organization, who looked upon Mr. Bird 
as their friend, and brought other friends to sit at his weekly club- 
table. At one time perhaps one hundred men were members of this 
Round Table, which met weekly at Young's or Parker's to dine 



208 APPENDIX II [404 

stood, as no commercial paper would have dared stand, for 
an aggressive Republicanism. For example, the Tocsin first 
appeared, on February i, 1861, with the motto, " No more 
compromise with slavery " ; the six numbers that were pub- 
lished contained articles by Elizur Wright, F. W. Bird, F. B. 
Sanborn and W. S. Robinson, all members of the Bird Club, 
against the repeal of the Personal Liberty Bill, against the 
Virginia Peace Conference, and in favor of radical anti- 
slavery measures.^ Another instance of these campaign pub- 
lications is the Weekly Commonwealth, which was first pro- 
jected by the Emancipation League.^ In 1862 it was sup- 
ported largely by George L. Stearns and edited by F. B. 
Sanborn ^ for the purpose of reelecting Charles Sumner ; it 
advocated emancipation, the enlistment of colored soldiers and 
other radical anti-slavery measures. The Commonwealth was 
longer-lived than the Tocsin, and during reconstruction times 
its general principle was the support of Congress, right or 

together. With the election of Governor Andrew in i860, they took charge 
of the State Government of Massachusetts, and controlled it for a dozen 
years, or until 1873." Edward L. Pierce, however, says the first com- 
pany was of Free-Soilers in 1853, that in 1857 there was a division 
into Banks and Birdmen, and that again in 1872 there was a second 
division because Bird opposed Grant's re-election. F. B. Sanborn, in 
reminiscence, said that in 1862-1863 " it was no unusual thing to see 
at the dinner-table on Saturdays the two Senators, Sumner and Wilson, 
Gov. Andrew, half a dozen Congressmen, with Dr. Howe, Mr. Bird, 
George L. Stearns, and many more of the radical Republicans of New 
England." Similarly introduction to " Warrington " Pen Portraits. 
On the occasion of the last meeting of the club various newspapers 
had sketches of its work and influence, e. g., Boston Herald, April 27, 
1901, and Springfield Weekly Republican, May 3, 1901. 

* Sumner MSS, from W. S. Robinson, Feb. 6, 1861 : " I send you a 
second number of the Tocsin, with which Howe, Stearns, Bird, J, M. 
Stone, Elizur Wright and I are trying to keep up the spirit of the 
Legislature." Also, "Warrington" Pen Portraits, p. 93. 

* Cf. supra, ch. iv. 

* Testimony of F. B. Sanborn. 



405] APPENDIX II 209 

wrong. A third special sheet was the Atlas and Bee.^ 
Founded by printers in 1842 in support of the Know-Nothings, 
it was the only political anti-slavery paper in Boston - during 
i860 and to July, 1861. It alone, of all the Boston daily 
papers, uttered " hearty fitting rebuke " to the pro-slavery 
mob in Boston, December 3, 1861. On June 24, 1861, it de- 
clared its position as follows: "We believe that adjustments, 
compromises, settlements, bargains, are futile and useless and 
impossible. The present is a struggle for life; it is a war of 
systems; liberty or slavery; republicanism or despotism. . . . 
We are pledged to support the most vigorous war measures 
of Congress and the President." All these campaign papers 
undoubtedly had influence unmeasured by their circulation, 
for mention of their position is frequently found in the well 
established dailies. 

Classed with the special sheets because of its influence 
through quotation may come the work of the New England 
Loyal Publication Society. This society was launched by 
John Murray Forbes.^ He perceived that Lincoln would ad- 
vance only so far and so fast as he was sure public sentiment 
would support him ; Forbes and his colleagues, therefore, 
determined to formulate an opinion that would make it pos- 
sible for Lincoln to advance.* Through its broadsides the 

* The Atlas and Bee varied its title: Atlas and Daily Bee, Jan., 1860- 
May 16, i860; Daily Atlas and Bee, May 16, 1860-June 24, 1861 ; Boston 
Daily Atlas, June 24, 1861-July 8, 1861. It was discontinued altogether 
on July 8, 1861. 

^ " Warrington" Pen Portraits, p. 94; Springfield Republican, July 
31, 1861. 
' Forbes, Recollections, vol. ix, p. 328; also cf. supra, ch. v. 

* " I wish you could elaborate the above idea about recruiting our 
army — Stanton opposes it, so we must make public opinion." — Post- 
script of a letter to C. E. Norton, Dec. 29, 1863, MS in New England 
Loyal Publication Society Collection; similarly Forbes, Letters (Sup- 
plementary), vol. ii, p. 64, to Madame De Tocqueville, Feb. 6, 1863. 
Pearson, Forbes, pp. 135-7, gives a sketch of the work and influenc« 
of the society. 



2IO APPENDIX II [406 

Society advocated Union primarily, emancipation as a military 
necessity, vigorous prosecution of the war, enlistment of 
colored soldiers, universal suffrage and other policies which 
in time were realized. 

Pamphlets also may be grouped with special publications. 
There were a few that favored secession and opposed the 
policies of the administration, but the majority were published 
with a purpose like that of the Loyal Publication Society. 
The speeches of senators and representatives were published 
in pamphlet form when it was thought that they would help 
to formulate opinion. It cannot be denied that the supporters 
of the war were inspired with missionary zeal and left no 
stone unturned in their endeavor to achieve their ideal. ^ 

Besides the publications already discussed, there were reli- 
gious periodicals which must be taken into account. The New 
York Independent was widely read in Massachusetts. The 
Congregationalist was the publication of the Congregational 
Church, which was in the majority in Massachusetts. These 
weeklies were as anti-slavery in sentiment as were the special 
campaigners. Not all the religious papers were of this tone, 
however, for the Boston Pilot, an ably conducted Catholic 
newspaper, was pro-slavery and Democratic.^ 

And finally standing by itself, was the Liberator, implicitly 
trusted by some and violently hated by others. It was the 
mouthpiece of extreme abolitionists. It was early opposed 

^ A letter from J. M. Forbes to C. E. Norton (June 28, 1864) illus- 
trates : " In clearing up old scores I find a note from you asking me if 
I know the character of Frank Blair's bill for recruiting in the Rebel 
states. Didn't I spend a month at that sink of iniquity, Washington, 
dinging it into Senator's ears, and didn't Wilson confess that by dint 
of forcing and bringing the New York and Philadelphia Leagues to 
bear, we got the Senate from ^ against it to a majority for it, when- 
ever it can fairly be got up? — but there was the rub. I now hand you 
a copy of the bill which I hope to see pass as an amendment to the 
enrollment bill, and if so we must fire a broadside into Stanton and 
force him to carry out the will of Congress." Forbes, Letters {Sup- 
plementary), vol. ii, p. 268. 

2 Cf. supra, ch. iv. 



407] APPENDIX II 211 

to the government. Its doctrine was " No union with slave- 
holders " ; its motto, " The Constitution is a Covenant with 
Death and an Agreement with Hell," was later (December, 
1861), changed to " Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land, 
to all the Inhabitants thereof ". With the adoption of the 
Thirteenth Amendment William Lloyd Garrison believed his 
work was done ^ and the paper was discontinued. 

These newspapers have been selected as representative. 
While they are but a portion of those on file, it is possible 
to obtain from them an adequate idea of the political opinion 
of Massachusetts as found in the press. 

* The Newburyport Herald, April 24, 1863, paid the following tribute 
to William Lloyd Garrison : " WilHam Lloyd Garrison is now the old- 
est editor in Boston, counting professional life alone; he is also the 
most successful. There is not an editor in Boston or the world who 
has been the means of accomplishing as great a revolution in public 
sentiment and public action as he. Of the anti-slavery movement which 
has culminated in this mighty civil war he can say — 'Solitary and 
alone I set this ball in motion.' People tell of the influence of the 
Tribune, of Charles Sumner, of political and religious anti-slavery 
societies ; but of all these Lloyd Garrison was the author — the father. 
He first declared for immediate and unconditional emancipation. . . . 
We do not agree with him, but think to do him no more than justice." 
This and similar statements have been believed. As tribute it has 
fallen into the error of exaggerated statement. William Lloyd Gar- 
rison undoubtedly was a courageous and able editor, but that he accom- 
pUshed a revolution in puWic sentiment and pubHc action is not true. 
That was accomplished by the necessities of the times, as has been 
shown, supra, ch, iv. 



APPENDIX III 
Bibliographical Note 

Besides the newspaper records, noted in Appendix ii/ con- 
temporaneous opinion may be found in correspondence, pub- 
lished and unpubHshed, in pamphlets, in broadsides, in maga- 
zines and in literary works. 

MANUSCRIPTS 

A number of collections of manuscripts are of high im- 
portance : 

The official correspondence of Governor John A. Andrew is in the 
executive offices at the State House, Boston. (His daughter, Miss 
Edith Andrews, has his personal correspondence, but owing to Miss 
Andrew's ill health these papers are not available. Professor Henry 
Greenleaf Pearson has consulted them and embodied the more impor- 
tant in his Life of John A. Andrew.) 

The Charles Sumner papers, which are in the Harvard University 
Library, comprise letters received : they include many from John A. 
Andrew, John Murray Forbes, George S. Boutwell, Richard Henry 

1 The newspapers might be listed here for convenience: 

The Atlas and Bee (1844-1861). 

The Boston Daily Advertiser (1813-). 

The Weekly Commonwealth (1862-1895). 

The Boston Courier (1824-1864). 

The Hampshire Gazette (Weekly, 1787-, Daily, 1890-). 

The Newburyport Herald (Daily, 1832-). 

The Boston Journal (1833-). 

The Liberator (Boston, 1831-1865). 

The Pilot (Boston, 1829-). 

The Boston Post (1831-). 

The Springfield Republican (Weekly, 1824-, Daily, 1844-). 

The Worcester 5"/)y (Weekly, 1775-, Daily, 184S-, discontinued, I904>. 

The Boston Trbvellcr (1845-). 

The Boston Evening Transcript (1830-). 

212 [408 



409] APPENDIX in 213 

Dana, Jr., Edward Everett Hale, L. Maria Child, Wendell Phillips, John 
D. Baldwin and Edward L. Pierce. 

The Harvard Archives contain the correspondence of its presidents, 
C. C. Felton (1860-1861) and A. P. Peabody, concerning the enlist- 
ment of Harvard students. 

The Reminiscences and Letters of John Murray Forbes have been 
published privately for his descendants. The Reminiscences are in 
three volumes, as are th^ Letters {Supplementary) . These six volumes 
have been edited by his daughter, Sarah Forbes Hughes (printed by 
George H. Ellis, Boston, 1902). 

The Massachusetts Historical Society possesses the Winthrop, Ban- 
croft and Schouler manuscripts, and is the custodian of the Amos A. 
Lawrence papers. The Lawrence collection is very complete, contain- 
ing both letter presses and letters received. The Robert C. Winthrop 
papers are also extensive : they include letters received and copies of 
letters written to Judge John H. Clifford, and to John P. Kennedy of 
Baltimore. The letters to William Schouler, adjutant-general of Massa- 
chusetts (1861-1866) are of little importance to the present work. The 
George Bancroft papers include a number of letters from Massachu- 
setts correspondents. 

Abolition correspondence, the Weston and the Garrison manuscripts, 
are in the Boston Public Library. The Garrison collection is very 
complete. 

The Eli Thayer papers are in the John Hay Library, Brown Uni- 
versity. 

The private papers of Edward Everett and 'Richard Henry Dana, Jr., 
are in the possession of the respective families but are not now acces- 
sible to the public. 

PUBLISHED CORRESPONDENCE AND SPEECHES 

The published correspondence and speeches are to be found, 
in part or entire, in journals, memoirs, biographies, etc. The 
opinions, comments, speeches, which the author found valuable 
were those of 

Adams, Charles Francis, in Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceed- 
ings, Nov., 191 1, pp. 76-148; extracts from his letters are contained 
in a biography by his son, Charles Francis Adams (American 
Statesmen Series). Boston, 1900. 

Andrew, John A., extracts from whose letters are contained in the 
Life of John A. Andrew by Henry Greenleaf Pearson, ii vols. 
Boston, 1904. 

Boutwell, George S., Speeches and Papers relating to the Rebellion and 
the Overthrow of Slavery. Boston, 1867. 



214 APPENDIX III [410 

Bowditch, Henry Ingersoll, The Life and Correspondence of, by his son 
Vincent Y. Bowditch, ii vols. Boston, 1902. 

Bullock, Alexander Hamilton, Addresses dehvered by. Boston, 1883. 

Child, Lydia Maria, Letters of. Boston, 1883. 

Curtis, Benjamin Robbins, whose speeches are contained in A Memoir 
edited by Benjamin R. Curtis, ii vols. Boston, 1879. 

Dana, Jr., Richard Flenry, extracts from whose letters are contained in 
a biography by Charles Francis Adams, ii vols. Boston, 1890. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, ii vols., 
Boston, 1883. And Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820-1876, 
edited by Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes, 
X vols. (vols, ix and x). Boston, 1913. 

Everett, Edward, Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions, iv vols, 
(vol. iv). Boston, 1868. Letters to and from Edward Everett are 
contained in the Life of John J. Crittenden by Mrs. Chapman Cole- 
man, ii vols. Philadelphia, 1871. There is also a letter in a biog- 
raphy of William Cullen Bryant by Parke Goodwin. New York, 
1883. 

Forbes, John Murray, Letters and Recollections, edited by Sarah Forbes 
Hughes, ii vols. Boston, 1899. 

Garrison, WiUiam Lloyd, whose letters and speeches are contained in 
a biography by his children, iv vols. (vol. iv). New York, 1889. 

Gray, Asa, Letters of, edited by Jane Loring Gray, ii vols. Boston, 1893. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Life and Letters of, by John T. Morse, Jr.^ 
ii vols. Boston, 1896. 

Howe, Samuel Gridley, Letters and Journals of, edited by Laura E. 
Richards, ii vols. Boston, 1909. 

Lawrence, Amos A., extracts from whose letters are contained in a 
biography by his son William Lawrence. Boston, 1888. Letters to 
and from Amos A. Lawrence are also contained in the Life of John 
J. Crittenden by Mrs. Chapman Coleman, ii vols. Philadelphia, 1871. 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, extracts from whose journals and 
correspondence are published in a biography by Samuel Longfellow. 
Boston, 1886. 

Lowell, Charles Russell, Life and Letters of, by Edward W. Emerson. 
Boston, 1907. 

Lowell, James Russell, Letters of, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, ii 
vols. New York, 1894. 

Morse, Charles P., Letters written during the Civil War, 1861-T865. 
Privately printed, 1898. 

Motley, John Lothrop, The Correspondence of, edited by George Wil- 
liam Curtis, ii vols. London, 1889. 

Norton, Charles Eliot, Letters of, edited by his daughter Sara Norton 
and M. A. DeW. Howe, ii vols. Boston, 1913. 



41 1 ] APPENDIX III 21 S 

Phillips, Wendell, Speeches, Lectures and Letters. Boston, 1863. 

Sumner, Charles. Memoir and Letters of, by Edward L. Pierce, iv vols., 
Boston, 1893; and Works of, xii vols. (vols, v-ix), Boston, 1895. 

Ticknor, George, Life, Letters and Journals of, ii vols. Boston, 1876. 

Robinson, William S., " Warrington " Pen Portraits, edited by Mrs. W. 
S. Robinson. Boston, 1877. 

Whittier, John Greenleaf, Life and Letters of, by Samuel T. Pickard, 
ii vols, or vols, x and xi of Works of Whittier. Boston, 1894. 

Winthrop, Robert C, Addresses and Speeches, 1852-1867, ii vols. Bos- 
ton, 1867. 

PAMPHLETS 

The pamphlets are numerous. There are two special col- 
lections in the Boston Public Library: the American Anti- 
slavery Tract, 1860-1862, published in Boston by R. F. Wall- 
cutt, in New York by the American Antislavery Society; and 
the Loyal Publication Society Pamphlets, nos. 1-44, (Feb. i, 
1863 — Feb. I, 1864), New York: Loyal Publication Society, 
1864. Besides these special collections both the Boston Pub- 
lic Library and the State Library have collections of separate 
pamphlets. These comprise many sermons dealing with the 
momentous questions of the hour, reprints of congressional 
speeches, reprints of important articles from the North Ameri- 
can Review and the Atlantic Monthly, and almost innumer- 
able separate pamphlets. These last are the most valuable and 
have been frequently quoted and frequently noted through- 
out this monograph. 

BROADSroES 

Broadsides were especially valuable, chiefly the Publications 
of the Loyal Publication Society, 1862-1868. There are two 
collections of these publications : the more complete one is in 
the Boston Public Library, the other is in the Rooms of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society. Among the broadsides are 
a few manuscript letters concerning the publications ; there are 
also notes concerning authorship. 

The Boston Public Library also possesses numerous separate 
broadsides : proclamations, general orders, poems, cartoons. 



2l6 APPENDIX III [412 

and sheets similar to those of the New England Loyal Publi- 
cation Society. 

Miss Eva Thayer, of Worcester, has two broadsides pub- 
lished by the Central Republican Club of Worcester in i860. 

MAGAZINES AND LITERARY WORKS 

The magazines and literary works may be classed together, 
for the articles that appeared in the Narth American Review 
(vols, xcii-cx), the Atlantic Monthly (vols, vi-xxiii) and 
Littell's Living Age (vols. Ixvi-civ), were frequently included 
in the collected works of their authors in later years. Obvi- 
ously the opinion of the literary group par excellence — of 
Emerson, of Holmes, of Longfellow, of Lowell, of Whittier, 
expressed either in poetry or prose, is always available in 
their collected works. 

DOCUMENTS 

The documentary evidence of public opinion is found in 
Massachusetts Public Documents as follows: 

Acts and Resolves passed by the General Court of Massachusetts in the 
years 1861-1874. 

Legislative Doaiments of the Senate, 1860-1874. 

Legislative Documents of the House, 1861-1874. 

Journals of the Senate, 1861-1874. Those from 1861-1867 are in manu- 
script. 

Journals of the House, 1861-1874. Those from 1861-1863 are in manu- 
script. 

Addresses of the Governors are collected and bound together in the 
Massachusetts State Library. 

BIOGRAPHIES, REMINISCENCES AND SECONDARY WORKS 

Biographies, reminiscences and secondary works gave many 
suggestions and sometimes valuable data. The most useful 
were the following : 

Adams, diaries Francis, 1835-1915; An Autobiography. Boston, 1916. 
Adams, Charles Francis, Charles Fratuis Adams (American Statesmen 

Series). Boston, 1900. 
, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., ii vols. Boston, 1890. 



413] APPENDIX III 217 

Austin, George Lowell, The Life and Times of Wendell Phillips. Bos- 
ton, 1888. 
Boutwell, George S., Reminiscences of Sixty Years. New York, 1902. 
Bowen, James L., Massachusetts in the War, 1861-1865. Springfield, 

Mass., 1889. 
Bowditch, Henry Ingersoll, Life and Correspondence of, by his son 

Vincent Y. Bowditch, ii vols. Boston, 1902. 
Brown, Albert G., Sketch of the Official Life of John A. Andrew. New 

York, 1868. 
Bridge, Horatio, Personal Recollections of Nathaniel Hawthorne. New 

York, 1893. 
Butler, Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences. 

Boston, 1892. 
Cabot, James Elliot, A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ii vols, (or 

vols, xiii and xiv in the Standard Library Edition of Emerson's 

Works). Boston, 1887. 
Carpenter, George Rice, John Greenleaf Whittier (American Men of 

Letters Series). Boston, 1903. 
Chandler, Peleg W., Memoir of Governor Andrew (with Valedictory). 

Boston, 1880. 
Chittenden, L. E., A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the 

Secret Sessions of the Conference Proposing Amendments to the 

Constitution of the United States. New York, 1864. 
Conway, Moncure D., Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. London, 1891. 
Cooke, George Willis, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boston, 1882. 
Curtis, Benjamin Robbins, A Memoir, edited by Benjamin R. Curtis, 

ii vols. Boston, 1879. 
Curtis, George Ticknor, Life of James Buchanan, ii vols. New York, 

1883. 
Dunning, William A., Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction. 

New York, 1910. 
Forbes, John Murray, Letters and Recollections of, edited by Sarah 

Forbes Hughes, ii vols. Boston, 1899. 
Forbes, John Murray, A Sketch, reprinted from the Atantic Monthly, 

Sept., 1899. 
Forbes, Robert B., Personal Reminiscences. Boston, 1878: 
Forney, John W., Anecdotes of Public Men, ii vols. New York, 1873. 
Fite, Emerson David, The Presidential Campaign of i860. New York, 

1911. 
Garrison, William Lloyd, told by his children, iv vols. New York, 1889, 
Gladden, Washington, Recollections. Boston, 1909. 
Gould, Alice Bache, Louis Agassis (The Beacon Biographies). Bos- 
ton, 1901. 
Greenslet, Ferris, Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Boston, 1908. 



2l8 APPENDIX III [414 
, James Russell Lowell. Boston, 1905. 



Halstcad, Murat, Caucuses of 1H60; A History of the National Polit- 
ical Conventions. Columbus, i860. 
Hale, Edward Everett, James Russell Lowell and his Friends. Bostcm, 

1899. 
Haynes, George H., Charles Sumner (American Crisis Biographies). 

Philadelphia, 1909. 
Headlcy, P. C, Massachusetts in the Rebellion. Boston, 1866. 
Higginson, Thomas Wentworlh, Cheerful Yesterdays. Boston, 1898. 
Hoar, George F., Autobiography of Seventy Years, ii vols. New York, 

1903. 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Men of 

Letters Series). Boston, 1884. 

, John Lolhrop Motley, A Memoir. Boston, 1881. 

Johnson, Oliver, William Lloyd Garrison. Boston, 1880. 
Kennedy, William Sloane, Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston, 1883. 

, John C'reenlcaf Whitiier. Boston, 1903. 

Lincoln, Abraham, Memorial of. Boston, 1865. 

Lanman, Charles, Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the 

United States. Washington, 1876. 
Lawrence, William, Life of Amos A. Laivrence. Boston, 1888. 
Longfellow, Samuel, Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, vols, xii 

to xiv of the Works of Longfellow. Boston, 1886. 
Lunt, George, The Origin of the Late Wc^r. New York, 1886. 
McCulloch, Hugh, Men and Measures of Half a Century. New York, 

1888. 
McPherson, Edward, The Political History of tite United States of 

America during the Great Rebellion. Washington, 1865. 
, The Political History of the Uyiited States of America during 

the Period of Reconstruction. Washington, 1871. 
Merriam, George S., The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles, ii vols. 

New York, 1885. 
Morse, Jr., John T., Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, ii 

vols. Boston, 1896. 
Pearson, John Greenleaf, Life of John A. Andrew, ii vols. Boston, 

1904. 

, An American Railroad Builder. Boston, 191 1. 

Oil on the Waters. Boston : J. E. Tilton & Co., 1867. 
Poore, Ben Perley, The Political Register and Congressional Direc- 
tory, 1776- 1S78. Boston, 1878. 

• , Reminiscences of Sixty Years, ii vols. Philadelphia, 1886. 

Picard, Samuel T., Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier, vols. 

ix and x of the Works of Whittier. Boston, 1894. 
Pierce, Edward L., Memoir and Letters of Cltcrles Sumner, iv vols. 

Boston, 1893. 



415] APPENDIX HI 219 

Tribute of the Massachusetts Historical Society to the Memory of 
Josiah Quincy, Proceedings, Series i, vol. vii. Boston, 1864. 

Rhodes, James Ford, History of the United States from the Compro- 
mise of 1850, vii vols. New York, 1893- 1906. 

Sanborn, F. B., Dr. S. G. Howe — Philanthropist. New York, 1891. 

Scudder, Horace Elisha, James Russell Lowell, ii vols. Boston, 1901. 

Sears, Lorenzo, Wendell Phillips. New York, 1909. 

Schouler, William, A History of Massachusetts in the Civil War, ii 
vols. Boston, 1868-1871. 

Storey, Moorfield, Charles Sumner (American Statesmen Series). 
Boston, 1900. 

Ticknor, George, Life, Letters and Journals, ii vols. Boston, 1876. 

Underwood, Francis H., James Russell Lowell. Boston, 1882. 

" Warrington " Pen Portraits, edited by Mrs. W. S. Robinson. Boston, 
1877. 

White, Andrew D., Autobiography, ii vols. New York, 1907. 

Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Pall of the Slave Power in 
America, iii vols. Boston, 1872. 

— ■ , History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh 

and Thirty-eighth United States Congresses (1865-1868). Hart- 
ford, 1868. 

Winthrop, Robert C, Jr., A Memoir of Robert C. Winthrop. Boston, 
1897. 



VITA 

The writer was born in New York City, was prepared 
for college at the Girls' Latin School of Baltimore, and 
was graduated an A. B. in 1905 from Goucher College, 
having majored in history under Professor Eleanor L. 
Lord. In 1908 she received the degree of A. M. from 
Columbia University. From 1908-1910 she taught his- 
tory in the High School of Somerville, New Jersey, 
attending, during the year 1909-1910, a course in Amer- 
ican History, at New York University, given by Pro- 
fessor John Spencer Bassett. For the years 1910-1912 
as Fellow in History at Smith College she studied Nine- 
teenth Century History, American and European, under 
Professor John Spencer Bassett and Professor Charles 
Downer Hazen, and collected much of the data for her 
dissertation. During the year 1912-1913 she held the 
John B. Van Meter Fellowship from Goucher College, 
and completed, in residence at Columbia University, the 
course requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philos- 
ophy under Professors William A. Dunning, Herbert L, 
Osgood, William S. Shepherd, James Harvey Robinson, 
Franklin H. Giddings and Henry Johnson, attending also 
the seminar of Professor Dunning. In 1914 she was 
appointed Instructor in History at Smith College. 



N 



